April 02, 2006

In a race of accidents, matador Alonso triumphs: Poor track conditions and many accidents did not effect Spaniard Fernando Alonso from easily winning the Grand Prix of Austraila- By Mark Gero

MELBOURNE, Australia- In a race with low track temperatures and much attrition, defending world champion Fernando Alonso managed to easily put his Renault on the top podium for the second time this season, with a five second victory over Kimi Raikkonen at the Grand Prix of Australia at Melbourne’s Albert Park. The Spaniard took over the lead on the third lap on a restart that occurred after a plethora of accidents happened on the previous lap, which involved Felipe Massa, Jarno Trulli and Nico Rosberg. Alonso never let his lead slip after this moment, for the remainder of the race. An accident resumed one lap after the first safety car came out onto the track. Christian Klien was the next victim as the Austrians smashed the tire barrier right after coming off the main straightaway. Home hero Mark Webber had a short lead in the race, but succumbed to hydraulic failures shortly before his first pit stop. With 28 laps remaining, Alonso held his lead to the same amount of seconds ahead of his nearest rival, Raikkonen. But only a few laps later, on lap 33, seven time champion Michael Schumacher hit his back wheels on the curb and crashed into the wall, unhurt. This brought out the safety car for the third time in the race due to the heavy amount of debris and made many front runners dive into the pits for fuel. However, with the race resuming again laps later, it was halted once again as Vitantonio Luzzi spun his Toro Rosso car on his cold tires and hit the wall and slid across the track. The Italian managed to climb out, but the debris, like Schumacher’s, was all over the area, bringing out the safety car for the final time in this race. With points on their minds, the bad luck award for the day went to Juan Pablo Montoya and Jenson Button, as both retired late in the race. The latter struck the curb on the final bend near the straightaway similar to Schumacher’s stint, and while the Colombian wrested the car from crashing, the incident shut off the power of the car. Button meanwhile, in a battle with Malaysian Grand Prix winner Giancarlo Fisichella, blew his engine just meters from the finish line. Besides Alonso and Raikkonen, Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher. Who suffered a stop/go penalty early in the race, managed to finish an impressive third, while Nick Heidfeld put his BMW fourth. Fisichella took fifth, while the second BMW driven by Jacques Villeneuve finished sixth. Rubens Barrichello salvaged some points for Honda with seventh; while David Coulthard took eighth after American Scott Speed was disqualified form this position, while passing the Scot under a yellow flag following Luzzi’s accident. The F1 competition will now take a three week break before beginning the European tour of the grand prix season with the San Marino race at Imola, April 23rd.

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