Raikkonen re-ignites challenge

KIMI RAIKKONEN secured his fourth victory of the season in yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix to re-ignite the title race as current leader Fernando Alonso failed to score any points.

Finn Raikkonen eased to a comfortable victory, but was forced to work hard for his win by determined reigning champion Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari’s seven-time champion led from pole but Raikkonen put him under intense pressure and finally made it past in the second round of pit stops, before being gifted the lead when team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya’s car broke down.

The Finn is now 26 points behind Renault driver Alonso with six rounds remaining and while his chances remain slim, the race marked a crucial turnaround in fortunes between the leader and the challenger.

“We did a little gamble yesterday with the fuel loads and I am pretty happy, we had a very good car,” the Finn commented. I was stuck behind Michael at halfway then I had one lap more and passed him.

“He just always pulled away in the last corner. At the start I was maybe a similar speed but after the first stops I was a bit quicker and luckily we chose different tactics so it came good.”

Raikkonen was cruelly denied victory by mechanical failure at Hockenheim in Germany last weekend and missed the chance to challenge at the preceding French and British Grands Prix because of engine failures in practice. He also crashed on the last lap while leading the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

But this time it was Alonso in the wars, pushed down the order to 11th after a first-lap collision and an under-performing car, and Raikkonen said: “For sure it looks better now than after the last race.

“We seem to be just going backwards and forwards but it definitely looks okay and there are still six races to go, we can definitely still fight for the championship and that is what we are going to do.”

Schumacher secured a morale-boosting second place for Ferrari, fending off the close attentions of his younger brother Ralf in the closing stages to ease home after a much-improved weekend for his world champion team.

The German said: “From where we came, to finish second is a good motivation for everyone in the team and a little payback for their hard work. I was pretty happy with the pace we could run.

“There wasn’t that much between us early on, but later I saw he was coming and he was quick enough to get by us but it was only about who would stop when and we were hoping they would stop in front of us but they stayed out one more lap.”

Ralf Schumacher secured his first podium finish for Toyota as he led home Italian team-mate Jarno Trulli after both drivers had lucky escapes in first lap collisions.

But he admitted he was critical of his team’s strategy gamble on fuel levels for qualifying and said: “My engineer was right to take it, so thanks! It was all good and the team did a great job.”

Briton Jenson Button used a two-stop strategy to claim fifth for BAR-Honda and score his fourth consecutive points finish, while German Nick Heidfeld used a similar strategy to climb up into sixth place for Williams.

Australian Mark Webber brought the second Williams home in seventh, but was lapped by the leaders, and Takuma Sato completed the points scorers for BAR-Honda.

A dramatic start saw Alonso hit the back of Ralf Schumacher’s Toyota and damage his front wing. Then Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien was dramatically barrel-rolled out by one of the Saubers.

Alonso’s wing ripped off on the straight heading into turn 12 and David Coulthard spun violently after running over the debris, ending Red Bull’s race before the first lap was complete.

Coulthard said: “It was a double whammy of a bad day for Red Bull Racing. I saw the nose of the Renault but could not react and I was lucky not to have a bigger accident really.”

Pit stop stategies played a crucial part in the outcome.

On lap 36 Schumacher peeled into the pits, with Raikkonen called in on lap 37. The Finn had moved easily ahead of his rival by the time he returned to the track, with Montoya having assumed the lead.

But then the bad luck hit Montoya when his car began to slow and he cruised round to the pits to post his second retirement of the season and leave Raikkonen in control.