Finntastic Raikkonen’s Turkish delight

KIMI RAIKKONEN claimed a dominant victory for McLaren in the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix yesterday to turn the heat up on championship leader Fernando Alonso.

The Finn was a class act as he coolly claimed his fifth win of the year but could only close the gap in the title race by two points after Alonso passed Juan Pablo Montoya on the penultimate lap.

Montoya’s late race troubles meant McLaren missed out on their first one-two finish for more than five years and Alonso’s fortunate second place enabled him to limit the damage to his title campaign.

Raikkkonen had to fend off the Renault cars at the start but then took it easy for the rest of the race and said: “I was quite confident that we would have the speed but you never know.

“I didn’t get the best start, I got a bit of wheel spin and was passed by Fisichella but he ran wide at the exit of turn nine and got it back. You have to go for it if you have the chance and it paid off well.

“We had been quick all weekend and we had a big advantage on speed. The circuit was not bad and I was able to just take it easy.”

Alonso snatched a slice of luck when Montoya’s car was damaged when it was hit by backmarker Tiago Monteiro’s Jordan at the end.

Alonso said: “It was a nice surprise at the end. I saw the yellow flags on the straight but you cannot see the corner. It surprised me when I saw Montoya and the Jordan there and that they had spun.

“I thought overtaking was not possible but he had damaged his car, went wide, and I overtook him, so it was a nice surprise but it’s a bit disappointing because we were a bit slower than them.”

Raikkonen lies 24 points behind Alonso with five races left to run, but McLaren’s strong showing enabled them to close the gap on leaders Renault in the constructors’ championship to nine points.

Raikkonen, who started the race from pole position, had to fend off challenges from his Renault rivals at the start but after finishing the first lap in front he was always in control.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella came home fourth for Renault while Briton Jenson Button surprised even himself when he claimed fifth place for BAR-Honda, having climbed up from 13th place on the grid.

Italian Jarno Trulli had an uneventful race and finished sixth for Toyota while Scot David Coulthard and Austrian Christian Klien put in a solid performance once again to claim the final points for Red Bull Racing.

World champion Michael Schumacher was accused of ‘un-sportsmanlike behaviour’ by Mark Webber after they clashed during the race.

The pair collided on lap 14 of the 58-lap race when Schumacher came up to lap Webber, who had already suffered an early puncture, and turned in on the Williams driver at the end of the back straight.

Webber said: “I think he was out of order because in the braking area it doesn’t matter if you are a lap down or whatever, and I was catching him. Michael was incredibly slow and I pulled out of his slipstream side-by-side.

“He started moving across in the braking area, which all the drivers have agreed not to do that because it is not sporting. When he started to do that I wasn’t that worried about making contact at the end. I didn’t show him much respect in the end when we went around the corner and then we collided.”