Having never stepped onto the podium in Montreal before,
Fernando Alonso ensured his first visit was to the top step with a dominant victory in the Canadian Grand Prix.
The
Renault driver was able to overcome the challenge of
Kimi Raikkonen in the early stages of the race, and a late safety car period, to take the chequered flag for a fourth consecutive victory that allows him to extend his lead in the championship to 25 points over runner-up
Michael Schumacher with half of the 18 races having now been run.
Having qualified on pole for the fifth consecutive race – and with clear daylight back to his main rivals – Alonso started the race as many peoples favourite and made a clean getaway when the lights went green to lead into the first corner. However behind the Spaniard, team-mate
Giancarlo Fisichella was to make the mistake that would cost him all chance of fighting for victory himself, as he was a little too eager to try and gain an advantage and jumped the start – automatically setting himself up for a drive-through penalty later in the race.
An attempt to halt his creeping start allowed Kimi Raikkonen to move into second at the start, with Fisichella slotting into third while
Jarno Trulli maintained his fourth place. Rather than attacking the
Toyota man, Michael Schumacher found himself going backwards at the start as he lost out to both
Nico Rosberg and
Juan Pablo Montoya – although theirs was a battle that would soon end in tears.
On the run down to turn three at the start of the second lap, Montoya edged the nose of his
McLaren up the inside of Rosberg, but the German youngster didn’t the see his opponent coming and when he turned in, the resulting contact saw the
Williams turned into the wall and retirement on the spot.
