Kimi Raikkonen prolonged his battle for the world title when his McLaren teammate Juan Pablo Montoya handed him an easy victory in the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Finn Raikkonen had Montoya to thank after he closed the gap on title race leader Fernando Alonso, but for the second time in three races, the Colombian suffered a disaster when he crashed out in the closing laps.
Montoya had led from pole before handing over the lead in the pits, but his late demise put Alonso up to second, costing Raikkonen two points in the title race, and the Spaniard now holds a 25-point advantage with 30 remaining.
Raikkonen said: ”If Fernando keeps finishing behind us, it is not possible to catch him any more, but we will do everything we can as a team to keep fighting and we were very unlucky today.
”Juan Pablo and I don’t want to race against each other too much, because there is no point. I was quicker at one point, then we stopped and he was quicker after the restart, but I caught him up in the end.
”We had a perfect race and it was unfortunate for the team what happened in the last few laps, because we could have had a one-two and we deserved it. I was happy with the car, but we deserved to have both cars on the podium.”
Alonso held his trophy aloft with the look of a man who now knows that he needs just one third-place finish in any of the final three races of the season to become formula one’s youngest champion to date.
He said: ”It is good and we don’t need to risk at this part of the championship. Now I don’t need to do four points more than Kimi at all, I just need six points and it doesn’t matter if Kimi wins.
”If I don’t finish the races, it will not be possible to win, but if I keep finishing the races, which has been the target, I am in a good position. We did a fantastic race and second place is much better than I had expected.”
Briton Jenson Button also gained from Montoya’s collision with Brazilian back marker Antonio Pizzonia’s Williams as he claimed his second podium finish of the season for BAR-Honda.
Raikkonen has now secured six wins, the same as Alonso, but the Spaniard was consistent as ever to ensure he still has his hands on the championship trophy with just the three fly-away races in Brazil, China and Japan remaining.
The battle for the constructors’ title swung further away from Renault and towards McLaren, however, as Raikkonen and Alonso were the only drivers from the two teams to finish and the gap from McLaren to leaders Renault closed to six.
The race was run in drying conditions and the cars started on wet-weather tyres after heavy morning rain soaked the track before stopping by the time the cars headed out to the grid.
Montoya made a clear get-away into the La Source hairpin off the line, while Raikkonen eased into second place and two McLarens did as expected and shot into the distance, with Montoya trailing Raikkonen right behind him.
Giancarlo Fisichella crashed his Renault on lap 11 when the back end of his car stepped out as he headed up the hill out of Eau Rouge and he spun 360 degrees before a heavy right-hand-side impact with the barriers.
The incident brought out the safety car and most of the drivers headed into the pits for tyres and fuel before the race was restarted at the end of the 13th lap, with Montoya maintaining his position at the front.
Montoya’s chase for the win and Raikkonen’s hopes of the victory gift were temporarily postponed when Ralf Schumacher, who had moved into second during the stops, put the Colombian under heavy pressure.
Schumacher’s challenge suffered when he came in for a long stop at the end of the 24th lap and then slid off at Les Combes before coming in for a change of tyres on the next lap, leaving the McLaren pair in a clear one-two.
The switch was made in the pits after Montoya slowed to allow Raikkonen to close right up and then pitted on lap 33 to leave the Finn clear for two laps. A quick stop put him back out ahead with an easy drive to the flag.
World champion Michael Schumacher retired when Takuma Sato hit the rear of his Ferrari at La Source and the frustrated German slapped Sato’s crash helmet as the Japanese driver sat in his BAR car.
Schumacher said: ”I’m not very happy. It’s not the first time he [Sato] has been involved in an incident like this, so it’s not good. It had looked promising for us today, especially with it drying out.”
Red Bull Racing driver David Coulthard retired with an apparent engine failure on lap 18 and Jarno Trulli crashed out in his Toyota on lap 35 before Montoya collided with Antonio Pizzonia just three laps from the end.
Pizzonia’s Australian teammate Mark Webber made no mistakes as he finished fourth for Williams, with Rubens Barrichello fifth for Ferrari and Jacques Villeneuve claiming sixth for Sauber.
Ralf Schumacher finished seventh fastest for Toyota despite his mid-race problems, with Tiago Monteiro taking the final point in a rare eighth-place finish for Jordan. — Sapa-AFP