SAO PAULO, Brazil, 26 September 2005 — Spain’s Fernando Alonso became Formula One’s youngest champion at the age of 24 yesterday after finishing third for Renault in the Brazilian Grand Prix.
McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya won the race for the second year in a row while team mate Kimi Raikkonen, the only man who could have put off Alonso’s title celebrations, finished runner-up.
Montoya would have let Raikkonen win had it helped the Finn’s title chances but Alonso needed just six points to follow Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher as champion and it was clear he was going to get them.
Starting on pole position, thanks to a lighter fuel load than the McLarens, he soon relinquished the lead to Montoya and settled down comfortably in third after the first pitstop.
McLaren could at least savor a first one-two finish in more than five years, taking the lead in the constructors’ championship into the bargain, but the real celebrations were at Renault.
Third place left Alonso with an unassailable lead of 23 points with two races remaining, making him his country’s first Formula One champion.
The title was also the first for the Renault team, who still have a chance of adding the constructors’ crown to Alonso’s.
McLaren lead those standings by 164 points to the French carmaker’s 162.
Seven times champion Schumacher finished fourth, ahead of Italian Giancarlo Fisichella in a Renault and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in the second Ferrari.
Briton Jenson Button was seventh for BAR with Ralf Schumacher taking the final point for Toyota.
Williams, whose last win was at Interlagos with Montoya at the end of last season, had a miserable afternoon with both cars colliding at the start.
In a crash that brought out the safety car for one lap, Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia hit the Red Bull of Briton David Coulthard and then his own team mate Mark Webber seconds after the start lights went out.
