Spanish King Juan Carlos made Fernando Alonso feel like a winner.
Although Alonso’s Renault finished second to Kimi Raikkonen’s McLaren-Mercedes in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, the king’s presence at the sell-out event with a 115 000-strong crowd made the difference.
”Second place here at home is a like a victory for me,” said Alonso, who was cheered at every turn by waves of blue-and-yellow clad fans hoisting hand-lettered signs, waving flags, and playing bagpipes.
The Celtic instrument — just as it is in Scotland — is a favourite in Alonso’s northern region of Asturias.
Signs around the course identified Alonso variously as ”King Alonso I” or ”Asturias’ Best.”
Thousands of blue-and-yellow Asturian flags meshed perfectly with Renault’s blue and yellow. A distant hillside overlooking the course was painted blue and yellow as fans without tickets strained to catch a glimpse.
Raikkonen’s winning time was 1 hour, 27 minutes, 16,830 seconds.
Alonso finished 27,6 seconds behind, with third for Jarno Trulli of Toyota. Ralf Schumacher of Toyota was fourth, followed by Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and Mark Webber of Williams-BMW.
The woes continued for seven-time series champion Michael Schumacher.
He retired after the 46th lap with a flat tire — his second in the race. His winless streak is now six, matching his longest since he joined Ferrari in 1996. He last won seven months ago in the Japanese Grand Prix and will try to break the streak in Monaco on May 22.
”No doubt it is moving away from us,” said Schumacher, who won 13 times last season. ”But not so far away that we already have to give it up.”
It was Schumacher’s second retirement with mechanical problems in the last three races. His last retirement with a mechanical problem — prior to this year — came in 2001. It also ended his string of four straight wins in the Spanish GP.
In Alonso’s three wins this season — Malaysia, Bahrain and San Marino — the king called each time. This time, he was in the pits to cheer him for second place, and gave him a royal hug on the victory podium before presenting Raikkonen with the winning trophy.
Alonso was also third in the opening race in Australia.
”He told me to keep it like this — or something like this — because we enjoyed the race,” Alonso recounted. ”It was a big party we saw this weekend in Spain. I have to say thanks to the people.”
The youngest driver to ever win in F1 — two years ago in Hungary — the 23-year-old Alonso is on track to be the youngest to win the season title. Through five-of-19 races, he leads the season standings with 44 points, followed by Trulli with 26.
Raikkonen moved into third place with 17 points. Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher have 14 points each.
In team points, Renault leads with 58, followed by Toyota with 40, McLaren with 37, Williams with 21 and Ferrari with 18.
”Five races, five podiums,” Alonso said. ”I said many times this year the start of this year was something I never expected.”
Accept for a glitch at the start — both Minardi cars stalled on the grid — the race at the Circuit de Catalunya was incident free.
Raikkonen was simply too quick, winning from the pole and picking up his third career win and his first since a victory eight months ago in Belgium.
”Overall the car was perfect,” Raikkonen said.
”I cannot think of anywhere it was not strong. It was really good, one of the best cars I have driven.
”I just kept the pace, I didn’t go full speed and I won quite easily,” added the Finn, who took the pole two weeks ago at Imola, but dropped out after nine laps with a broken drive shaft.
”Finally, it happened. The last race was close.
”You can never be 100% sure until you cross the finishing line. Something can always happen.”
Raikkonen became the 11th driver in the last 15 Spanish GP’s at this circuit outside the Catalan capital to win from the pole.
The field was cut from 20 drivers to 18 after BAR-Honda was banned for two races on Thursday when the FIA ruled that Jenson Button’s car was underweight and raced illegally at last month’s San Marino GP.
Raikkonen pulled away relentlessly from the start, at times adding two full seconds per lap to his edge over Alonso. After 22 laps, Raikkonen had 24-second lead over the Spaniard.
Raikkonen pitted after the 25th, a quick 8,6-second stop that allowed him to come out ahead of Alonso, who pitted on the 27th and slipped back into the pack.
Schumacher, starting from number eight on the grid, began to make up time midway through the race, where he turned back-to-back quickest laps — moving him temporarily into second place — before pitting after 32.
His race began to break down after 44 laps, when he pitted to replace a blown left rear tire. Two laps later, he went out with a flat tire. – Sapa-AP