JULY 3, 2005

Race incidents from Magny Cours

There are no dramas before the start of the race. A large crowd (for Magny-Cours) enjoys 30-deg C temperatures

* Lap 1: At the start Fernando Alonso goes away in the lead with Jarno Trulli second, Michael Schumacher third and a fast-starting Rubens Barrichello getting ahead of Takuma Sato's BAR-Honda. Next up is Giancarlo Fisichella ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya, who moves ahead of Jenson Button at the start. Kimi Raikkonen has a good first lap, passing Mark Webber and Ralf Schumacher to move to 11th. Further back Narain Karthikeyan overtook Christian Klien and at the back Christijan Albers makes a good start to jump from 20th to 18th, ahead of Patrick Friesacher and Tiago Monteiro. At the end of the lap Alonso has a lead of 1.4secs with Trulli holding up Michael Schumacher.

* Lap 2: Alonso sets the fastest lap to increase his lead to 2.8secs while Trulli remains ahead Schumacher, Barrichello, Sato and Fisichella. Further back Raikkonen passes Villeneuve for 10th place. At the back Klien retires with a mechanical failure.

* Lap 3: Alonso increases his lead to 4.1secs

* Lap 5: With his fifth consecutive fastest lap, Alonso's lead is up to 7.0secs. The order behind him is the same.

* Lap 13: Alonso's lead has grown to 19secs with the order behind remaining the same. Trulli still has Schumacher behind him. At the back of the field Freisacher is the first man to pit, suggesting that the Minardi driver will have three pit stops.

* Lap 15: Fifth-placed Sato pits and falls back to 11th. Alonso stopping are Felipe Massa and Ralf Schumacher. The Sauber falls from ninth to 14th and the German from 12th to 15th. At the tail of the field Monteiro stops but remains 18th.

* Lap 17: Alonso is leading by 24secs. Fourth-placed Barrichello stops and drops back to ninth position.

* Lap 18: As alonso continues on his way, Trulli and Michael Schumacher both pit. This promotes Fisichella to second and Montoya to third and Button fourth with Raikkonen up to fifth. Trulli is slower in the pits than Michael Schumacher, who drops to seventh. Trulli rejoins in eighth. Also stopping is Nick Heidfeld who drops from 12th to 15th.

* Lap 19: Fisichella, Button, Villeneuve and Mark Webber all pit. Fisichella has a long stop and falls from second to 10th, while Button drops from fourth to eighth and Villeneuve from sixth to 12th. Webber falls from 10th to 14th.

* Lap 20: Alonso pits but his advantage is so great that he emerges in the lead again, 10secs ahead of Montoya and Raikkonen, who have yet to stop. Fourth place is Michael Schumacher ahead of Trulli, Barrichello, Sato and Button. David Coulthard, who is yet to stop, pits and drops from ninth to 15th.

* Lap 22: Takuma Sato takes advantage of a backmarker to grab sixth place from Rubens Barrichello. Further back Monteiro overtakes Karthikeyan for 16th.

* Lap 24: Third-placed Raikkonen sets the fastest lap of the race as he tries to take advantage of a light car. He is clearly going for a two stop strategy.

* Lap 25: Montoya stops and drops from second place to third, just ahead of Michael Schumacher. The Colombian is on a two-stop strategy.

* Lap 27: Takuma Sato tries to overtake Trulli for fifth place and goes off. He drops to 10th place.

* Lap 28: Raikkonen finally stops and had sufficient advantage to remain in second, ahead of Montoya. Further back Massa slows and pits to retire.

* Lap 30: Webber comes into the pits again, indicating that he is on a three-stop strategy. This drops the Williams from 12th to 14th. At the back Friesacher has his second stop.

* Lap 33: The three-stop runners continue to pit with Monteiro and Albers stopping at the back.

* Lap 34: Michael Schumacher pits, revealing that he is on a three-stop strategy. He stays fourth. Sato also pits and drops from ninth to 13th.

* Lap 35: Alonso is maintaining a lead of half a minute over Raikkonen with Alonso having two stops to come and Raikkonen only one. At the back Karthikeyen pits as well.

* Lap 36: Friesacher retires from last place.

* Lap 37: Heidfeld pits and falls from 11th to 13th. At the back Albers spin off in Turn 2.

* Lap 39: Barrichello has his second stop and falls from sixth place to 10th.

* Lap 41: Alonso stops for the second time and his lead over Raikkonen drops to 13secs with both men needing to stop once again.

* Lap 42: Michael Schumacher has a big lock-up but continues in fourth place. Eleventh-placed Coulthard has his second stop. He rejoins in 12th place.

* Lap 43: Ralf Schumacher has had a longer middle-stint that looked likely after his early stop and he is up to ninth. He pits and loses only one place. His two-stop strategy is going well.

* Lap 44: Fisichella is seventh and is on a two-stop strategy. He pits for the second time and loses a place.

* Lap 45: Trulli is also on a two-stop strategy and he drops from fifth to eighth during his second stop.

* Lap 47: Montoya has been getting slower and slower and obviously has a problem. He pulls off and retires from third place. Michael Schumacher inherits the position but he is nearly a minute behind Raikkonen. Further back Heifeld has an unscheduled stop in his Williams.

* Lap 48: Villeneuve is up to fourth but stops and falls back to eighth. Further back Heidfeld has another stop.

* Lap 50: Sato has his second off of the afternoon and so drops from 10th to 11th. On the same lap Ralf Schumacher passes Villeneuve for eighth.

* Lap 51: Michael Schumacher pits again and so falls a minute behind Raikkonen but he remains in third place. At the back Monteiro pits again.

* Lap 52: Webber and Heidfeld both pit but they are so far apart that it does not upset the team. Webber rejoins in 12th. Heidfeld's horrible afternoon continues as he rejoins in 14th, several laps behind.

* Lap 54: Barrichello has his third stop and falls from seventh to 10th. At the back Karthikeyan has his final stop.

* Lap 55: Raikkonen has his second stop and stays second but Alonso is half a minute ahead when Kimi rejoins.

* Lap 56: Sato has his third stop and stays in 11th place. At the back Heidfeld pit for the sixth time. He rejoins and begins a fight for last place with Karthikeyan.

* Lap 58: Alonso and Fisichella come in for their final stops. Fernando rejoins with an lead of 18secs over Raikkonen. Fisichella stalls and drops behind Button and Trulli. Coulthard has his final stop and drops from ninth to 10th.

* Lap 70: Alonso wins by 11secs from Raikkonen. Michael Schumacher is almost an entire lap behind but gets the points for third place. Everyone else is a lap down. Fourth place goes to Button, giving BAR its first World Championship points with Trulli fifth, Fisichella sixth, Ralf Schumacher seventh and Villeneuve eighth. Barrichello is a disappointing ninth ahead of Coulthard and Sato. Webber is a lap down after a dismal day for Williams. The only other finishers are the two Jordans and Heidfeld.