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Juan Pablo Montoya wins the British Grand Prix !!

Montoya Wins British Grand Prix

By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer
Posted July 10 2005, 10:00 AM EDT

SILVERSTONE, England -- Juan Pablo Montoya won the British Grand Prix on Sunday for his first victory of the season and fifth of his career.

The McLaren-Mercedes driver was followed by Formula One points leader Fernando Alonso of Renault and Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren.

Montoya led nearly the entire race. The Colombian started third on the grid and swept into the lead seconds into the race, passing pole-sitter Alonso.

It was Montoya's first victory since he captured the last race of the 2004 season in Brazil. The former Indy 500 champion missed two races early this year with an injured shoulder and had not had a top-three finish this season, his first with McLaren.

Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault was fourth, followed by Jenson Button of BAR-Honda. Button, who has yet to win a Formula One race in five seasons, was trying to become the first British winner since David Coulthard in 2000.

Alonso leads the standings with 77 points from 11 races. Raikkonen stayed in second place with 51 points and Michael Schumacher, who finished sixth, stayed in third with 43. Montoya improved to 26 points.

The McLaren cars -- with Raikkonen finishing third -- had the best speed, which was evident from the first seconds when Montoya passed Alonso on the opening lap.

Raikkonen was the second-quickest in qualifying but was penalized 10 places on the starting grid after he blew an engine in practice. The same thing happened a week ago in the French Grand Prix.

It was another disappointing weekend for Ferrari. Schumacher, the seven-time series champion, was just a second ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello. They finished on the same lap as the winner but 75 seconds behind.

The crowd of about 100,000 observed a moment of silence before the race in tribute to the victims of the bombings in London on Thursday.

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ColombianoX

'Defensor de la Colombianidad'

By ColombianoX on Jul 10, 2005, 07:36 in Friendly Talkzone.

kernow62 says on Jul 10, 2005, 11:22:

He did a nice job except at the start where he almost ran into the side of Alonso on the first corner, but it was an intentional move. Afterwards he said, that Alonso had much more to lose and that he (Montoya) had nothing to lose by making a very agressive move on Alonso's Renault. It put Alonso off his game just enough that Montoya got the lead and as anyone knows in F1 it isn't easy to pass. The two cars and drivers were about equal in this race and a strange fueling strategy by Alonso I think contributed to Montoya's victory. I am glad he won and not Kimi, it helped Alonso out in the championship.

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