British GP: Montoya takes first McLaren victory
Sunday July 10 2005
www.planet-f1.com/news/story_20241.shtmlJuan Pablo Montoya won a hard-fought but somewhat lacklustre British GP to earn his first victory in McLaren colours.
The Colombian roared from third off the grid into the lead at the first corner and continued to hold off Fernando Alonso, eventually finishing just over two seconds ahead of the Renault.
As in France a week ago, Kimi Raikkonen roared up through the field to take a podium finish, yet still lost two points to Alonso in their battle for the World Championship.
With Giancarlo Fisichella fourth, Jenson Button's hopes of a podium finish were dashed, the BAR simply not quick enough to keep up with the two McLarens and Renaults.
Race report: The ambient temperature was 27 degrees Celsius and the track at 45C as the cars lined up on the grid in bright sunshine. On the parade lap Takuma Sato confused the following drivers when he stopped his car right in the middle of Woodcote as the field streamed through to their grid slots.
It was diagnosed as an electronic failure and the car refused to do anything. With the short start/finish straight at Silverstone, Race Director Charlie Whiting was unable to see Sato’s car round the corner and got the race underway, electing not to abort the start.
As the red lights went out it was Juan Montoya who got a storming start. Jenson Button was slow away from second place and the Colombian was quickly inside him. As the cars headed into the 160mph Copse corner he stuck his car alongside Alonso’s onm the outside and hoped for the best.
“I knew Fernando Alonso couldn’t risk too much and I was prepared to risk a bit more,” said Juan afterwards. By Becketts Juan had the lead and his car still in one piece.
Behind him Button maintained third place. Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher both had good starts for Ferrari with Rubens easing into 4th place and Michael up into 7th place from 9th.
Further back Kimi Raikkonen went one side of Jacques Villeneuve while Ralf Schumacher went the other into Copse. However it didn’t all end in tears and by Stowe corner Raikkonen had got past them both into 8th place.
Further back David Coulthard got squeeed against a Williams by team-mate Christian Klien and lost a lot of momentum as Klien went by on the ouside. But nobody touched at all on what is F1's quickest opening corner.
Even before the end of the first lap the Safety Car had been deployed owing to the fact that Takuma Sato’s stricken BAR-Honda hadn’t been removed from the race track in time. So as the car crossed the start/finish line at a reduced pace it was Montoya leading from Alonso, Button, Barrichello, Fisichella, Trulli, Michael Schumacher, Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher in 9th and Jacques Villeneuve in 10th.
Behind: Webber, Klien, Heidfeld, Coulthard and Massa.
It didn’t take long to get Sato’s car back to his garage and he rejoined the back of the field a lap down as the Safety Car came round on Lap 2. At the end of that lap, the Safety Car finished its work for the afternoon and let the pack get on with it.
Even though the field had been squeezed up again, no-one was able to take advantage on the re-start, though Raikkonen got close to Michael Schumacher going into the Becketts sweeps. The fact that nobody could follow close and pass at what is traditionally a good circuit for overtaking casts further doubt on the aero rules introduced for 2005.
The rest of the race was to bear this out. At the front, Montoya couldn’t escape from the attentions of Fernando Alonso. Behind him, the biggest gap started to appear between Giancarlo Fisichella in 5th and Jarno Trullin in 6th. Trulli reprising his French GP role of starting well and then fading backwards. The man behind him in France was the same, Michael Schumacher, who got another big opportunity to study the Toyota rear wing, while keeping an attentive eye in his wing mirrors for Kimi Raikkonen behind.
On Lap 5 Trulli was already lapping two seconds slower than Alonso and Montoya, who were in the 1:22s, with the Toyota in the 1:24s. The roadblock wouldn’t disappear until Lap 20.
Then on Lap 6 a slightly disturbing incident in Stowe corner. With Raikkonen clearly much quicker than the Ferrari through Stowe, the World Champion suddenly slowed by 30 mph making Raikkonen run wide and stand on the brakes. It looked as though Michael Schumacher had suddenly lifted (or the equivalent of a brake test). Thankfully Raikkonen avoided him, but it must have been unsettling for the Finn.
It may have been a sudden non-recurring problem with the Ferrari throttle, but as Schumi has made a habbit of doing it through his career, it demaded looking at again. Considering Schumacher had his major F1 accident in the corner, the likelihood is that it was a blip, but it’s something that should be cleared up by a swift telemetry check by race stewards. Raikkonen wouldn’t get as close again in the first stint and wouldn’t get past until the pit-stops.
On Lap 9, while dicing with the BMW-Williams, Christian Klien put his car onto the grass which precipitated an early pit-stop for the Red Bull to check that everything was in one piece. His excursion would let Nick Heidfeld in the “old aero” Williams through into 12th place. For the rest of the day, Heidfeld would be locked in a battle with the two Red Bulls and Jacques Villeneuve.
Mark Webber in the “new aero” Williams was mostly able to stay clear of the battle.
On Lap 10 Fernando Alonso put in the fastest lap of the race in his pursuit of Montoya – a 1:22.315 – the gap to Montoya was just 1.2 seconds and Raikkonen was already a further 18 seconds back, still in 8th place and locked up behind Schumacher.
Narain Karthikeyan had the rare distinction on Lap 11 of being the only driver to retire from the race as he parked his Jordan. Though Monteiro temporarily left the track at Turn 6 a lap later, he was able to continue to the flag.
As fuel loads came down so the Fastest Laps began to swap hands.
Lap 14 Fernando Alonso 1:22.143
Lap 15 Juan Montoya 1:22.091
Lap 16 Juan Montoya 1:21.918
Lap 18 Fernando Alonso 1:21.846
Lap 20 Fernando Alonso 1:21.761
On Lap 18 we found out that Rubens Barrichello’s better qualifying time than Michael Schumacher was down to fuel, as he came in for the first time in what would be a three-stopping race. His six second stop was clearly not long enough to give him fuel for much over half distance.
A lap later the squabbling posse of Villeneuve, Heidfeld and Coulthard all came in together, with JV responding to a flicker that was not his lollypop man and leaving his box too early, knocking his fueling crew over in the process.
At the end of Lap 22 it was Juan Montoya who pitted from the lead, just as he was coming up to lap Coulthard and Villeneuve in 14th and 15th places. This would normally be the time for Alonso, who was just a second behind, to put the hammer down.
But it was team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella who then put in the Fastest Lap of 1:21.509 while Alonso had to scramble past DC and JV.
At the end of Lap 23 Alonso pitted and as he emerged out of the pitlane we almost had a Schumi/Rubens moment a la Indy 2005. Juan Montoya came steaming through Copse at 160mph just as Alonso merged from the pitlane towards the Maggots kink. The cars were alongside, but Juan had the momentum and got into Becketts first by a car length or two.
Yet to stop and now in the lead Giancarlo Fisichella was clearly enjoying himself as he put in another Fastest Lap of 1:21.344.
Much to Kimi Raikkonen’s relief Michael Schumacher pitted at the end of lap 24 – clearly on a two-stopper, unlike Rubens. He rejoined behind brother Ralf, in 9th place. A lap later and Fisichella finally gave up the lead and pitted. This pit-stop was successful for the Renault driver, because the string of fast laps had jumped him ahead of Jenson Button (who pitted on Lap 20, along with Jarno Trulli) and up from 4th into 3rd.
Though there was still one man to come in. Kimi Raikkonen was now in third place on the road and with a very low fuel load was rapidly approaching the Montoya vs Alonso tussle which had resumed. As he was racing for position Alonso had to defend and going into Stowe, he moved across to block Raikkonen. However with a new fuel load on board and with Raikkonen running on vapours it was an uneven contest and Raikkonen easily took second place.
It lasted till Woodcote corner when he dived in for his first pit-stop. Much to the relief of the Mclaren pitcrew, they got their man out in front of Michael Schumacher who was lapping at least a second slower than Raikkonen after his pit-stop and faded backwards for the remainder of the race.
So, after the first round of pit-stops, on Lap 27, Juan Montoya led by 2.8 seconds from Alonso. The Spaniard was 2.4 seconds ahead of team-mate Fisichella, who was 7.5 seconds ahead of Jenson Button in 4th. Rubens Barrichello was just 0.9 seconds behind him but now with two stops to make compared to everybody else’s one. Kimi Raikkonen was 25 seconds off the lead in 6th, Schumi 7th, Trulli 8th, Ralf 9th with Mark Webber in 10th.
In the middle stint of the race Juan Montoya began to build the gap to Alonso, while Fisi held station, Button faded gently and Raikkonen closed in. Rubens Barrichello stopped for No.2 of 3 pit-stops on Lap 32 promoting Kimi to 5th.
At this stage of the race the McLarens began to push hard. Though traffic and a lack of blue flags shown to lapped cars impeded the leading drivers, both Montoya and Raikkonen put in some great laps. On Lap 34 the McLarens were the only cars in the 1:21s. Then came some more fastest laps – on old tyres!
Lap 37 Kimi Raikkonen 1:21.303
Lap 39 Kimi Raikkonen 1:21.205 (just 19 seconds off the lead now)
Lap 40 Juan Montoya 1:20.737 (half a second quicker than anyone else!)
Lap 41 Juan Montoya 1:20.700 (now a 5.9 second gap to Alonso)
By Lap 43 Montoya had stretched out a seven second gap. Though Raikkonen had closed up to the gearbox of Jenson Button’s BAR-Honda, and would surely jump him in the pit-stops, he didn’t look like he could catch Fisi, who was echoing Alonso’s pace.
On Lap 44 Montoya pitted for the final time, but both Alonso and Fisi stayed out. Then, on Lap 45, we got a repeat of Alonso’s lack of cool that he’d shown in Canada. Running behind Fisichella in Montreal Fernando started complaining over the radio to get Fisi out of his way. Though Fisi was eventually sidelined and Alonso released, the Spaniard went on to put his car into the wall.
At Silverstone it was his friend Jarno Trulli who he came up to lap that was the cause of the excitement. Running through Abbey and Bridge Trulli didn’t move over for the Renault, and then in the Complex Alonso left his braking behind the Toyota so late that he locked up and almost took his own front wing off. It allowed team-mate Fisichella to close and may have cost him the race.
Fisichella pitted at the end of Lap 46 and just like in France, he stalled. Immediately his podium was gone, swallowed up by Kimi Raikkonen. The mechanics got him going in time to save what had now become 4th place.
Alonso didn’t need fuel till the end of Lap 49 and he’d used the intervening laps to eat into Montoya’s lead. When he emerged from the pits after a 4.9 second stop he was a lot closer to the Mclaren than most had expected. Though it wasn’t as tight as the first round of pit-stops, he was just 1.1 seconds down now.
So on lap 50 the order was Montoya, Alonso, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Button, a very distant M.Schumacher, Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher in 8th ahead of Trulli in 9th.
Trulli had opted to run his engine for a third race, giving him the advantage of a fresh engine for Hockenheim where the Cologne-based Toyota factory workers would be watching.
Though Alonso got the gap to Montoya down to 0.9 on Lap 52, that was as close as he would get. It edged out to 1.1, 1.4, 1.7, 2.0 at which point Montoya cruised to the line 2.1 seconds ahead. Fisichella tried hard but couldn’t get close to Raikkonen either.
The only action in the closing stages came from Takuma Sato finally clearing Tiago Monteiro in his lonely race from the back, while the Heidfeld/Coulthard/Villeneuve/Klien gaggle continued to look for opportunities right till the end.
On the last lap Kimi Raikkonen put in the Fastest Lap of the race (yes, on very old tyres and on a hot track) a 1:20.502 was two-tenths faster than anyone had gone all afternoon.
It was a great victory for Montoya who had withstood a lot of pressure from Alonso, but yet again a frustrating one for Raikkonen, who saw Alonso add two more points to his World Championship lead. It was even more curious that Raikkonen, the victim of too many engine failures in 2005, should stress his engine for no particular reason at the end.
It was riveting stuff, but the on-track battles of the 2005 British Grand Prix had been less than spectacular. If we can’t have overtaking at the (FIA poll) world’s third favourite GP track, then whoever dreamed up the aero rules for 2005 needs a substantial kick.
FH