2005 Monaco GP: Räikkönen wins, Williams duo pass Alonso

Kimi Räikkönen won the 2005 Monaco GP for McLaren from pole position and led all 78 laps. Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber followed him home, giving Williams a double podium. The race was decided during the Safety Car period just under a third of the way through: Räikkönen stayed out while his rivals pitted. Championship leader Fernando Alonso faded on completely worn rear tyres and could only salvage fourth place at the end.

Räikkönen got away well from pole and held the lead into Sainte Dévote ahead of second-placed Alonso. He then immediately started reeling off quick laps around the Circuit de Monaco and, according to crash.net, was already three seconds clear of the Renault driver by lap 9. After lap 20, Wikipedia puts the gap at more than five seconds.

Webber lost places from third on the grid. According to grandprix.com he had traction control problems, and he dropped behind Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli to fifth. Further back, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher made up ground straight away. They had started from 16th and 18th on the grid. Montoya had been blamed for a crash in Saturday morning free practice that also involved Ralf Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve and David Coulthard. As punishment, his qualifying time was deleted.

The first retirement came after 18 laps: Narain Karthikeyan parked his Jordan with a hydraulic failure. According to grandprix.com, an earlier contact with the wall was the cause.

According to grandprix.com, Christijan Albers spun his Minardi at Mirabeau on lap 24 and blocked a large part of the track. Coulthard braked hard in the Red Bull to avoid hitting the Minardi. Behind him came Michael Schumacher, who could not see what was happening, and ran into the back of the Scot. Coulthard was out after 23 laps with damaged rear suspension. Schumacher needed a new front wing for his Ferrari and, according to crash.net, dropped to 13th place.

The Safety Car was deployed, and most teams immediately called their drivers in. Renault pitted Alonso and Fisichella one straight after the other. Both Williams cars came in too. Räikkönen stayed out. According to Wikipedia, the call was made by McLaren chief strategist Neil Martin. According to grandprix.com, however, Räikkönen was already past the pit entry when the team made its decision. Whichever way the decision came about, it won McLaren the race.

After the restart, Räikkönen had to build a big enough lead for his own stop, and he managed it. According to Wikipedia he was 34.7 seconds ahead before his pit stop on lap 42 and rejoined around 13 seconds ahead of Alonso. From then on, his lead was never under threat.

At Renault, by contrast, things got worse lap by lap. Alonso's car was carrying a heavy fuel load and the rear tyres degraded quickly. According to grandprix.com, both Renaults were in serious trouble from around half-distance. A train of cars built up behind Alonso, led by the two Williams.

Williams brought Heidfeld in for his second stop a lap earlier than Webber. That allowed the man from Mönchengladbach to jump his team-mate in the pits, as Webber was stuck behind the slow Alonso for one more lap. In the closing laps Heidfeld attacked and passed Alonso at the harbour chicane. According to grandprix.com that was on lap 72; crash.net has it as early as lap 71.

Webber had a tougher time. On his first attempt, Alonso cut the chicane and stayed ahead. Shortly afterwards the Spaniard cut it again and Webber got through. It was the Australian's first podium in Formula 1. Heidfeld finished second, 13.877 seconds behind Räikkönen.

Alonso salvaged fourth place. At the finish, according to Wikipedia, the cars from fourth to eighth were separated by only around a second: Alonso, Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. Michael Schumacher set the fastest lap on lap 40 (1:15.842). On the final lap there was a controversial move between him and Barrichello at the chicane. According to grandprix.com, the Brazilian had to lift to avoid a crash.

Besides Karthikeyan and Coulthard, two more drivers retired:

• Patrick Friesacher (Minardi): Crash after 29 laps. According to crash.net, he spun on the bumps after the tunnel and into the escape road. A second Safety Car was not needed.
• Vitantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull): Crash after 59 laps. He had not pitted under the Safety Car and dropped from eighth to twelfth. Later, according to grandprix.com, he brushed the barriers at the tunnel exit and damaged his rear suspension. It was Red Bull's first race without points.

On lap 62, according to grandprix.com and crash.net, Villeneuve tried to pass his Sauber team-mate Felipe Massa at Sainte Dévote. Massa took to the escape road, while Villeneuve hit the barrier. Massa finished ninth, Villeneuve eleventh.

Apart from Räikkönen, the day's winners were above all Ralf Schumacher, who gained twelve places (from 18 to 6), and Montoya, who worked his way up eleven places (from 16 to 5). Heidfeld gained four places. The loser of the day was Fisichella: he started fourth and finished twelfth, a lap down. Trulli dropped from fifth on the grid to tenth for Toyota after an unlucky stop under the Safety Car and a driving error. Coulthard lost ten places through his retirement.

Alonso remained at the top of the 2005 World Championship with 49 points. Räikkönen moved past Trulli (26) on 27 points and was now second, 22 points behind Alonso. Webber (18) and Heidfeld (17) moved up to fourth and fifth. Michael Schumacher was only ninth with 12 points. In the constructors' standings, Renault led on 63 points ahead of McLaren (51) and Toyota (43).

It was Räikkönen's fourth Grand Prix win and his first in Monaco. After Spain, it was also his second win in a row, and once again he had led every lap. McLaren were clearly on the up, even if the gap to Alonso in the championship was still large. BAR were absent in Monte Carlo as the team was still serving the last race of its two-race ban. Red Bull ran a Star Wars livery.

You can find all the results and data for this race on our 2005 Monaco GP race page.