Formula One: Raikkonen Closes the Gap As Button Self-destructs

Kimi Raikkonen dramatically reversed the course of the formula one world championship battle yesterday as he stormed to victory in the Canadian grand prix here at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

His McLaren-Mercedes took the chequered flag just over a second ahead of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, which had made up 31 seconds after pressuring Jenson Button's BAR-Honda to the point where the British driver crashed into the wall and the safety car was deployed as a result.

McLaren celebrated Raikkonen's victory and the fact that he reduced Fernando Alonso's championship lead by 10 points to 22 on a day when the Spanish driver made a rare error while leading the race, glanced a wall and broke his right rear suspension in the impact.

It was a bitter day for the Renault team, with Giancarlo Fisichella leading the opening stages ahead of Alonso only for the Italian to succumb to mechanical problems before Alonso made his slip.

The high rate of attrition enabled Rubens Barrichello to finish a fantastic third in the other Ferrari after starting from the pit lane because he suffered a gearbox breakage during qualifying.

For Button the Montreal race was a huge disappointment after starting from pole position, but Juan Pablo Montoya's disappointment after being black flagged and disqualified for shooting a red light at the end of the pit lane certainly took the edge off McLaren's victory celebrations. Montoya was running ahead of Raikkonen at the time the safety car was deployed but McLaren chose to bring the Finn in first for a fuel stop rather than the race leader. When Montoya made his own stop a lap later there was insufficient time for him to get back on to the circuit before the slow-running field came past the pits. It was a low moment for the McLaren squad.

"The problem with a black flag is you're unable to protest it and if you do you're going to get more severely penalised," said Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal.

Button's run to pole on this circuit was achieved despite running higher levels of downforce than one might have expected, a tactic intended to protect his choice of hard-compound Michelin tyres from excessive wear in the gruelling conditions.

Fisichella's Renault, which qualified fourth, registered the highest top speed at 330kph with Button 16th out of the 20 runners on 318kph. BAR's return to competitive form after the humiliation of a three-race ban for a fuel-system rule infringement had involved a certain amount of technical backtracking. Prior to the San Marino grand prix, where Button finished third before being disqualified, the team had enjoyed a highly productive test at the Mugello circuit but had since lost their way aerodynamically. At the recent Silverstone and Monza tests the team returned to that Mugello baseline and it now seemed to be paying off.

"I'm thrilled to be back on pole," said Button. "The past few months have been difficult for all of us at BAR-Honda and everyone has worked so hard to turn our performance around. It felt like a good lap but the circuit had quite low grip so I was a little surprised, to be honest."

For Schumacher, second fastest qualifying time meant that he took the Ferrari F2005 to the front row of the starting grid for the first time since its debut race in Bahrain over two months ago. He was happy that the Ferrari at last seemed to be making progress, but he was concerned about its potential reliability after both he and Barrichello suffered gearbox failures.

With track temperatures nudging 46C (115F) Button confidently took up his place on pole position and as the starting lights went out accelerated away on the clean racing line. Yet as the BAR driver chopped right to cover Schumacher's Ferrari,the front-row cars were swamped from both sides by the fast- starting Renaults who rocketed into first and second places as they jostled for position into the first tight left-hander.

As the rest of the pack sorted themselves out at the first turn the two Renaults streaked out on to the back straight in tight formation and Fisichella duly burst through the final bend before the pits to complete the opening lap already 0.7sec ahead of Alonso.

Button was third ahead of the two McLarens and Schumacher's Ferrari. The Renaults' sheer pace left onlookers speculating what refuelling strategy the leading runners had adopted. Button was hanging on well for the first few laps but even though he could not match the pace of the dominant French machines it became clear that this was not because the BAR was heavy with fuel. He would last only until lap 15 when he made an early stop to refuel for the first time, dropping him to sixth place and allowing the McLaren drivers a clear track on which to target the Renaults ahead of them.