Background
Race
The start of the race was expected to see some formation flying from the two Renaults, only for Fisichella to slightly creep forward before the lights went out. That hence allowed Räikkönen to immediately charge past him as the Italian hit the brakes as the lights went out, and would result in a drive-through penalty later in the race.
The first lap was marked by Midland cars colliding in a tight hairpin, Albers dropped out of the race and Monteiro had to go to the pits to repair the damage. In the second lap, Montoya, who was much faster than Rosberg, attacked the German at every corner trying to pass. However, this struggle ended in a crash at the start of lap 2, which led to Rosberg retiring and Montoya still trying to stay in the race for some time after the pit stop, but eventually retired on lap 14. Schumacher was stuck behind Trulli for a large proportion of the race before finally managing to overtake him, although Alonso had gained a considerable lead over him by this point.
Starting from the first lap, in the first segment of the distance, Räikkönen actively attacked Alonso in front, and nevertheless outlasted him on the track, going to a pit stop a lap later. Thanks to this, Raikkonen could win the race, but during a pit stop there were problems with the rear right wheel, and the Finn returned to the track, losing 5 seconds to Alonso. Indeed, the second round of stops would prove even more disastrous for Räikkönen, as he not only spun on his in-lap, but had an anti-stall when trying to leave his pitbox.
With just a handful of laps left the safety car was out for a second time, as home-town hero Jacques Villeneuve crashed into the wall due to brake failure. This was Villeneuve's last F1 start at the circuit named after his father. Finally, after the appearance of the safety car on lap 60, Michael Schumacher in third was able to close on Räikkonen and overtake him on lap 69 due to the latter's error.
Alonso took his sixth win of the season and extended his championship lead over Michael Schumacher, who finished second. Räikkönen finished in third place and completed the McLaren team on the podium. Alonso now had six wins and three second places from the first nine races.
Michelin scored their 100th win as a tyre supplier.
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Kimi Räikkönen
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