Fernando Alonso drove a textbook race to win the 60 lap British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday. The Spaniard recorded his fifth win of the year to pull out a 23 point lead in the World Championship over second placed Michael Schumacher. The Ferrari driver finished 13.9s behind the Renault driver after overtaking Finland's Kimi Raikkonen at the second round of pit stops. Giancarlo Fisichella did the same thing to Ferrari's Felipe Massa, the pair finishing fourth and fifth, extending Renault's lead in the Constructors' series to 31 points over second placed Ferrari.

Run in warm if slightly cloudy weather, the race promised a battle royal between Alonso, Schumacher and Raikkonen as the Finn challenged the Spaniard for the lead in the early stages, after an early safety car period following a collision between Scott Speed and Ralf Schumacher which then also involved Mark Webber. Massa and Fisichella weren't far behind, slowly leaving sixth placed Nick Heidfeld and Juan Pablo Montoya behind. But slowly Raikkonen, with slightly slower straight-line speed, was left behind by Alonso's flying Renault although Michael Schumacher continued to shadow the McLaren Mercedes. Massa and Fisichella remained close behind in fourth and fifth, while Montoya continued to push Heidfeld.

Schumacher was the first to stop on lap 18, with Raikkonen and Massa coming in a lap later. Montoya stopped on lap 20, Fisichella on lap 21 and finally Alonso pitted on lap 22. Heidfeld stayed out for another three laps. Alonso now had a lead of 12s over Raikkonen, with Michael still just behind him. Fisichella had emerged ahead of Massa and was now fourth, with the second Ferrari now fifth. Montoya had also jumped Heidfeld in the pit stops to hold sixth with Heidfeld seventh, while Nico Rosberg was eighth, ahead of Jacques Villeneuve. The lead gap remained pretty stable during the second stint, coming down fractionally from 12s to 11s, while Raikkonen was still only around a second ahead of Michael. He had, however, pulled away from Fisichella, who in turn was pulling away from Massa.

Michael pitted for the second time on lap 41 and when he came out, he was again on new tyres, and pushed hard to set very quick sector times. Raikkonen came in on the next lap and rejoined on used tyres, but 2.6s behind Michael, so the German driver had successfully completed his operation. Alonso came in on lap 44 and Fisichella, Massa and Montoya a lap after that. Michael was now 12s behind Alonso, while Raikkonen was initially 3.7s behind Michael but that was soon rising. What was coming down was the gap between Raikkonen and fourth placed Fisichella and that would almost have disappeared completely when the chequered flag came out. Massa finished in fifth place from Montoya sixth, while the final two points-winning places were filled by the BMW Saubers after Nico Rosberg dropped back during the final pit stop and was overtaken by Villeneuve.
 

Jean Todt: "It was a hard fought race, as indeed we had expected. Strategy played a decisive role: in a positive way for Michael, who managed to gain a place compared to his starting position on the grid and in a negative way for Felipe, who lost one. We are up against very strong opponents, but obviously when you are going for the win, coming second is reason enough to be disappointed. However, it also acts as a further stimulus to try and close the gap that separates us in terms of overall performance. That would allow us to qualify at the front and then be able to run an attacking race. There are still ten races to go to the end of the season. We will fight as hard as we can to reach our objectives, along with our partners, especially Bridgestone."

Michael Schumacher: "Second place was the best we could today, given our grid position. Although there were no real problems with the car this weekend, we were simply not quick enough to win. We must work very hard now to come back right from the next race. But all in all, we should still be pleased with these eight points. There are still ten races to go with a hundred points to play for. Even though I am twenty three points behind Alonso, I don't think the fight for the championship is over. For much of the race I was behind Kimi even though I had more potential, which is why I feel this result is not so bad. The next two races take place on completely different types of track. It will be interesting to see who has the upper hand on these circuits. We have to try and get back on top."

Felipe Massa: "Not exactly a great day for us. We were hoping to be more competitive, but Renault showed itself to be very strong. I lost a place to Giancarlo in the way the pit stops played out. I don't think I could have done better than this fifth place, which is reasonable. I did not have any particular problems during the race, even though I had no more sets of new tyres, having used all of them in free practice and qualifying. There are important developments on the way for the car and I hope they will allow us to raise our game."

Ross Brawn: "Naturally, we hoped that with Michael we would make up at least two points, but we ended up losing them. However, things could have been worse and so we can be reasonably happy with the final result. We knew that Raikkonen would be a hard nut to crack. We tried to pass him at the first pit stop, but we did not manage it and so we had to wait for the second. We had a good car, the Bridgestone tyres delivered consistent performance, but we paid the price for how qualifying went and that made for a difficult race."

Michael Schumacher: 2nd + 13.951 60 laps chassis 254; Felipe Massa: 5th + 31.559 60 laps chassis 250; Temperatures: air 26/27°C, track 36/39 °C