Silverstone, 11th June 2006

Fernando Alonso drove a textbook race to win the 60 lap British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday. The Spaniard recorded his fifth win of the year to pull out a 23 point lead in the World Championship over second placed Michael Schumacher. The Ferrari driver finished 13.9s behind the Renault driver after overtaking Finland's Kimi Raikkonen at the second round of pit stops. Giancarlo Fisichella did the same thing to Ferrari's Felipe Massa, the pair finishing fourth and fifth, extending Renault's lead in the Constructors' series to 31 points over second placed Ferrari.

Run in warm if slightly cloudy weather, the race promised a battle royal between Alonso, Schumacher and Raikkonen as the Finn challenged the Spaniard for the lead in the early stages, after an early safety car period following a collision between Scott Speed and Ralf Schumacher which then also involved Mark Webber. Massa and Fisichella weren't far behind, slowly leaving sixth placed Nick Heidfeld and Juan Pablo Montoya behind.


But slowly Raikkonen, with slightly slower straightline speed, was left behind by Alonso's flying Renault although Michael Schumacher continued to shadow the McLaren Mercedes. Massa and Fisichella remained close behind in fourth and fifth, while Montoya continued to push Heidfeld.

Schumacher was the first to stop on lap 18, with Raikkonen and Massa coming in a lap later. Montoya stopped on lap 20, Fisichella on lap 21 and finally Alonso pitted on lap 22. Heidfeld stayed out for another three laps. Alonso now had a lead of 12s over Raikkonen, with Michael still just behind him. Fisichella had emerged ahead of Massa and was now fourth, with the second Ferrari now fifth. Montoya had also jumped Heidfeld in the pit stops to hold sixth with Heidfeld seventh, while Nico Rosberg was eighth, ahead of Jacques Villeneuve.

The lead gap remained pretty stable during the second stint, coming down fractionally from 12s to 11s, while Raikkonen was still only around a second ahead of Michael. He had, however, pulled away from Fisichella, who in turn was pulling away from Massa.

Michael pitted for the second time on lap 41 and when he came out, he was again on new tyres, and pushed hard to set very quick sector times. Raikkonen came in on the next lap and rejoined on used tyres, but 2.6s behind Michael, so the German driver had successfully completed his operation. Alonso came in on lap 44 and Fisichella, Massa and Montoya a lap after that.

Michael was now 12s behind Alonso, while Raikkonen was initially 3.7s behind Michael but that was soon rising. What was coming down was the gap between Raikkonen and fourth placed Fisichella and that would almost have disappeared completely when the chequered flag came out.

Massa finished in fifth place from Montoya sixth, while the final two points-winning places were filled by the BMW Saubers after Rosberg dropped back in the final pit stop and was overtaken by Villeneuve.