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Journalism of Courage
Renault’s Fernando Alonso could be crowned Formula One’s youngest champion next weekend after finishing second to Juan Pablo Montoya of McLaren in the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Spaniard Alonso, 24, stretched his championship lead over Montoya’s unlucky team mate Kimi Raikkonen, now his sole rival and fourth on Sunday, to 27 points with four races remaining.
Renault’s Italian Giancarlo Fisichella took third place and his team are eight points clear of McLaren in the constructors’ standings.
Ferrari’s seven times world champion Michael Schumacher failed to score a point for the second race in a row and was mathematically ruled out of title contention for the first time since 1999, ending Formula One’s longest reign.
The German, a sad 10th in front of a far smaller crowd than usual at Ferrari’s home circuit, has been champion since 2000. Colombia’s Montoya, who started from pole, had to nurse his car home when one of his back tyres appeared to be wearing badly. He finished in one hour 14 minutes 28.659 seconds, 2.479 seconds ahead of Alonso.
Second on the grid, he appeared happy to stay out of trouble and take advantage of Raikkonen’s problems.
“I opened a gap and felt quite comfortable, it was a question of maintaining the gap,” said Montoya. “I could see the tyre breaking up at the end and there was very little grip. I was kind of calculating, any quicker would be been a risk.”
Raikkonen still provided the fascination of a race low on incident by reeling off fastest laps and roaring back to fourth place before a spin allowed Toyota’s Italian Jarno Trulli back in front. Trulli’s advantage was short-lived, however, Raikkonen passing him to at least limit the damage.
The race was the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix of 1961 that all drivers finished.
Narain finishes last
Monza: Narain Karthikeyan endured a tough race to finish 20th and last at the Italian Grand Prix here today.
Karthikeyan’s Jordan teammate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal came 17th while the former saw the two Minardis finish ahead of him.
