MAGNY-COURS, France, 3 July 2005 — Leading world championship driver Spaniard Fernando Alonso yesterday claimed pole position for today’s French Grand Prix in front of many of his Renault team’s flag-waving fans on a dry, but dismal, afternoon in southern Burgundy.
Alonso, 23, who leads the drivers’ title race with 59 points, 22 more than his nearest rival Finn Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren, clocked his best time of one minute and 14.412 seconds after 20 minutes of a strangely-subdued qualifying session at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours.
His effort delighted the traveling Renault fans on a day when he and his teammate Italian Giancarlo Fisichella claimed superior qualifying places than their much-faniced McLaren rivals Raikkonen and Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya.
Raikkonen, who suffered an engine failure on Friday, ended up as the third-fastest qualifier, but will be demoted 10 places on the grid because his team changed the power-unit in his car, while Montoya was down in ninth place.
Fisichella was seventh fastest, enough to put a smile on Renault team boss Flavio Briatore’s face.
Italian Jarno Trulli was second fastest for Toyota ahead of Raikkonen with defending world champion German Michael Schumacher fourth for Ferrari, Japanese Takuma Sato fifth for BAR and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello sixth in the second Ferrari.
Briton Jenson Button, who had high hopes of securing a podium finish, was eighth fastest and was out-qualified by his BAR teammate Sato for the first time this year.
The session was run in an unusual order as a result of the reverse order of the finishing positions at the United States Grand Prix race fiasco in Indianapolis two weeks ago, the two Schumacher brothers Ralf and Michael starting and finishing the session.
The weather, overcast, dry, but breezy, did little to enlighten the crowd, but few complained at seeing a Renault driver, in blue, topping the times and waving back to their cheers at the end of the day.
