Alonso reigns in Bahrain (From Witney Gazette)

Alonso reigns in Bahrain

8:34am Monday 13th March 2006 in Other sport

Fernando Alonso heads to the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday after a gutsy victory in a dramatic Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Enstone-based Renault F1 driver won a wheel-to-wheel battle with Michael Schumacher to start his title defence with maximum points.

Alonso came within an inch of hitting Schumacher as he came out of the pits right alongside the Ferrari, but he held his nerve and took a lead he would not lose.

The Spaniard said: "It was the only opportunity to win the race and I was going for it. It was my moment and I knew if I was in front of him at the exit of the pits, the race was mine.

"I pushed, had a good in-lap and thanks to this I was in front. I was quite sure the victory was in my hands."

But Alonso admitted he was lucky to even be in the race after a frightening moment on lap eight when Felipe Massa lost control of his Ferrari.

The Brazilian's wayward car flew towards Alonso's Renault at high speed but missed by inches.

Alonso added: "There was nothing I could do, the speed was too quick and you cannot react. Basically I was lucky."

The nip-and-tuck battle for supremacy will not be a one-off though according to Alonso, who expects one of Formula One's closest seasons in decades.

"There are four teams fighting for victory at any circuit," he said. "Any of them can win races and this makes the start of the season especially very interesting."

Schumacher banished painful memories of his disappointing 2005 campaign with a fine drive to run Alonso close.

The seven-time world champion led for most of the race and was only beaten into second place by a whisker.

He is predicting a closer challenge than last year, when he finished a mammoth 71 points behind Alonso in surrendering his world title.

"Quite honestly if you think what we had last year, if someone would have told us we would have finished second we would have said No'.

"This is very nice but victory would have been nicer. It was a good result with a reliable car, a fast car and it's very promising for the rest of the season."

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium with third place after surging through the field from last on the grid.

A practice crash left him stranded at the back but he delivered a stunning drive to take third place, less than 20 seconds behind Alonso.

The McLaren driver was left cursing his suspension failure in qualifying, which he claimed robbed him of a potential victory.

"There are many races to go and the car seems to have good speed," said the Finn. "It is good we have not dropped too many points on the guys in front of me.

"For sure we would have had a chance to win the race. I think we could have been fighting against them."

Raikkonen's run through the field denied Brackley-based Honda's Jenson Button a podium finish.

The Englishman also had to fight back, after a botched start, and he finished right on Raikkonen's tail in fourth while the other McLaren of Juan Pablo Montoya was fifth.

Mark Webber ran a steady race to claim points for the Grove-based Williams F1 team with sixth place while his rookie team-mate Nico Rosberg charged from the back of the field to take seventh on his debut.

Sam Michael, technical director of WilliamsF1, said: "Our final positions don't reflect our real pace as the car was fast and we were perhaps a bit too conservative on our pit stop strategy by running too long at the start.

"However, looking at the FW28 over the race, it is clear that we have a strong car aerodynamically and mechanically. With all of the new partnerships that we have, today is a credit to all involved.

"Mark drove a solid race, start to finish. Nico made mistake at turn one, which cost him 45s on his in lap and pitstop without this, he would have been on the podium and he did record the fastest lap of the race. For his first race, it's a fantastic result. Our target now is to turn up in Malaysia and deliver the goods."

Takuma Sato came home to complete the Super Aguri Formula 1 team's inaugural Formula One Grand Prix. Team-mate Yuji Ide made a gallant effort during his F1 racing debut following an early drive-through penalty, fuel rig complications and finally a stop out on track due to a mechanical problem with only ten laps of the Grand Prix remaining.

Sato said: "It is a fantastic result for us. I think that the boys in the garage deserve to be happy because they worked so hard to get us here to Bahrain.

"Although today we had radio communication and fuel rig problems, which is why there was some confusion during our pitstops, I think that everyone in the team has done a really good job.

"It is a positive step for us and I am very happy with today's result. It was only a shame for Yuji that we could not bring the two cars home, but it is the great start that the team needed."