Alonso blows away rivals to stretch lead

FERNANDO ALONSO tightened his suffocating grip on a second world championship with a consummate display at Montreal to end his North American jinx.

The Renault driver kept his cool when plenty around were losing theirs to defy difficult track conditions and win for the sixth time this season, extending his championship lead to 25 points.

He comfortably bettered his previous best of fourth in Montreal and confessed his delight at finally winning for the first time in North America.

He said: “It is fantastic for me again. All the victories are nice but this one particularly, after the last two or three years having the opportunity to win and something happening.

“This is one of the races that we should have won in the previous years and now we have it.”

Dust and tyre debris littered the track by the chequered flag and contributed to several high-profile mistakes, including a costly one from Kimi Raikkonen on the penultimate lap.

The McLaren driver ran wide at the hairpin to allow Michael Schumacher through for a second place, which he considered a good return from a damage limitation exercise.

“We kept the damage as small as possible,” said the Ferrari driver, who dropped just two points on Alonso despite trailing in seventh place early on.

“We didn’t have a perfect weekend but we managed to get a result so we go from here.”

Alonso was frustrated by Schumacher’s progress through the field after he dropped down the order on the opening lap.

His early seventh place became fifth when McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya and Williams’ Nico Rosberg clashed before a drive-through penalty for jumping the start dropped Giancarlo Fisichella down.

Alonso pulled out just two points on Schumacher despite another display of crushing dominance, but he hopes for more at Indianapolis next weekend.

He said: “Today we had an opportunity to have Fisichella in front of Michael and Kimi but in the end Michael managed to finish second so the gap is not increasing too much.

“Indianapolis is another chance to win and increase the gap again.”

Raikkonen confessed he could not care less about his lost second place after conceding his world championship dream is now all but over.

The Finn is 45 points adrift of Alonso with just 90 left to fight for and he revealed his only target for the second half of the season is to add to his nine career victories.

He said: “It wasn’t ideal but for me it doesn’t really matter, second or third. If I cannot win I don’t worry about it.

“It could have been second but in the end it doesn’t matter. I am not fighting for the championship any more — I only want to win.”

Fisichella overcame a drive-through penalty to take fourth for Renault, who now lead the constructors’ championship by a fearsome 34 points from Ferrari, who had Felipe Massa in fifth.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli finally scored his first points of a frustrating season with a fine drive to sixth while Nick Heidfeld was seventh for BMW-Sauber.

Scotsman David Coulthard snatched the last world championship point late in the race after Jacques Villeneuve threw away eighth place by smacking into the wall in front of his home fans.