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Alonso excels in Bahrain
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-03 22:29

Fernando Alonso stamped Renault's authority on the Formula One world championship here when he cruised to a dominant victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix.


Spanish Renault driver Fernando Alonso leads the pack on the Sakhir racetrack after the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix, in Manama, Bahrain. Alonso stamped Renault's authority on the Formula One world championship here when he cruised to a dominant victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix.[AFP]

Spaniard Alonso outclassed the field in the baking dry heat of 42 degrees Celsius to notch up his second victory of the season as the challenge of world champion Ferrari's new car came to nothing.

Italian Jarno Trulli finished second to make the top two the same as the last race in Malaysia and Finn Raikkonen claimed his and McLaren's first podium of the season with third.

German Ralf Schumacher finished fourth in the second Toyota and Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa matched his best ever finish with fifth for McLaren after filling in for the injured Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.

Australian Mark Webber finished sixth for Williams, Brazilian Felipe Massa finished seventh for Sauber and Scot David Coulthard bumped Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello out the points in the dying laps to claim eighth.

Christian Klien stalled his Red Bull Racing car on the grid as the field pulled away for the warm-up lap and he was pushed back to the pitlane but the team could not repair the problem and he never took the start.

When the lights went out Alonso had a clean start to make it into the first corner first while Schumacher had to fend off the challenge of Trulli, who made it past on the outside but was beaten back at the next turn.

Webber made it past Williams team-mate Nick Heidfeld while Raikkonen and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella moved up to seventh and eighth as de la Rosa dropped down and Briton Jenson Button moved into 10th in his BAR-Honda.

Indian Narain Karthikeyan retired his Jordan early then Fisichella's Renault engine let out a puff of smoke on lap three and he pitted as Japanese driver Takuma Sato shot through the pack and up to eighth place in his BAR-Honda.

Fisichella returned to the track but was back in the pits on lap five and he was forced to climb out of the car and retire as Ralf Schumacher won an early battle with Heidfeld for fifth spot.

Michael Schumacher then went off track at turn ten as he locked his brakes going into turn 10 while hounding Alonso for the lead on lap 12 and he toured in to post his second retirement of what has become a disastrous season.

With the German world champion out of the race Alonso turned his attention to keeping ahead of Trulli, who by the 15th lap of the race was three seconds behind.

Alonso was able to extend his advantage only slightly by the time Ralf Schumacher, in the second Toyota, made the first pit stop of the front-running drivers on lap 18.

Leader Alonso stopped at the end of lap 20 as de la Rosa dropped down the order after going off track under pressure from Sato but the Renault driver regained his lead when Trulli and Webber pitted on the next lap.

The engine in Heidfeld's Williams expired as he completed his 25th lap but he left it until the fifth corner, after trailing a plume of smoke, before he pulled off the track to stop.

A second retirement in as many laps saw Sato pull into the pits after going off at turn one and spinning at turn ten when he suffered an apparent brake disk problem on his BAR-Honda.

By lap 28, with all the first stops completed, Alonso had a lead of 7.1 seconds over Trulli with Webber 28.2 seconds behind in third and Raikkonen a further 2.4 seconds back in fourth.

With 40 of the 57 laps completed Alonso had a 13.6-second advantage over second-placed Trulli with Raikkonen a massive 40.4 seconds down in third and Ralf Schumacher just off the podium in fourth.

De la Rosa finally made it past Barrichello on the final corner of the 41st lap to take sixth as Alonso pitted to hand the lead briefly to Trulli, who then gave it back when he stopped along with Webber one lap later.

Barrichello's demise continued on lap 44 when he was passed by Button for fifth place and Webber pushed Ralf Schumacher hard for seventh but failed to get past when the Toyota driver went wide on lap 45.

Button and Barrichello stopped on lap 46 and Button was left in the pits for more than a minute after he stalled his car and his team struggled to get it going again.

They eventually push-started it back into the race but the Briton retired after just a matter of metres when his car ground to a halt at the end of the pitlane.



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