Belgian F1: Raikkonen wins again, Alonso second again -

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Belgian F1: Raikkonen wins again, Alonso second again -

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September 12, 2005 McLaren-Mercedes driver Kimi Räikkönen won the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps yesterday, taking his sixth victory of the season and the eighth of his career but moving not much closer to the title many see as inevitably his at some point in the next few years. Räikkönen won the event, but the 2005 McLaren curse struck again with both of the team’s cars safe in first and second place with just two laps to go when Montoya was taken out by a slower driver, dropping the team’s points haul and allowing third placed Fernando Alonso to take second spot and maintain his championship lead buffer at 25 points with just three races to go.

A double victory for the McLaren-Mercedes team was prevented three laps from the finish when Juan Pablo Montoya was pushed out of second place in a collision with Antonio Pizzonia (Williams-BMW).

After 16 of the season's 19 races McLaren-Mercedes holds second place in the Constructors' World Championship table with 146 points behind leaders Renault on 152 points. Though McLaren is favourite to take the constructors title, Renaul has fought aan impressive rearguard action and may yet hold off the fast finishing black and silver Mclaren Mercedes outfit.

For B.A.R Honda, the signs were generally good, and with Rubens Baricchello ready to step into the team next year, seeing the BAR back on the podium this weekend augurs well for the Honda factory F1 team. The podium came courtesy of a great finish from Jenson Button who stormed to a spectacular third place finish in the final stages of the Belgian Grand Prix.

In a tumultuous race in typically difficult weather conditions, Jenson battled hard throughout the 44-lap race to achieve his first podium at the challenging Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

In fourth place was Mark Webber who might have been higher still if his team hadn’t made some bad decisions on tyres during the race held on a drying track. Webber stays in tenth place in the title chase, and now sits within striking distance of a closely grouped bunch of drivers in the points tally with three races to go of the season – Jarno Trulli is fifth in the title with 43 points, then Giancarlo Fisichella on 41 points, Ralf Schumacher on 37 points Rubens Barrichello on 35 points and Jenson Button on 30, with Webber’s team-mate Nick Heidfeld just behind him on 28 points.

The start

Montoya started from his second consecutive pole position for McLaren-Mercedes and took an immediate lead from Kimi who qualified second. The Colombian completed the opening lap ahead of his team colleague and they gradually began to pull away from the field.

The race

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