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Juan Pablo Montoya won his first race for McLaren after a tense duel with Renault's Fernando Alonso at the British Grand Prix.

Montoya, who started third, took the lead from Alonso with a brave move into the Maggotts corner on the first lap.

The Colombian led throughout. Alonso made both of his pit stops later but narrowly failed to beat the McLaren.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen started 12th but took third from Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella's and BAR's Jenson Button.

Michael Schumacher was sixth after an uncompetitive race for Ferrari, heading team-mate Rubens Barrichello and the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher.

Raikkonen, who was demoted 10 places on the grid as a penalty for changing his engine, slipped to 26 points behind Spaniard Alonso in the world championship battle with eight races to go.

The Finn drove an impressive race using slightly later pit stops than all his rivals to capitalise on the pace of his McLaren.

The team did a good strategy and Fernando got some traffic and that was enough

Juan Pablo Montoya
More Montoya reaction
Raikkonen made up three places at the start, including passing Jacques Villeneuve and Ralf Schumacher three abreast at the 160mph first corner.

But his chances of challenging for the lead were lost when he was held up behind Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Michael Schumacher's Ferrari throughout first stint.

Once on a clear track after his first pit stop, Raikkonen was the fastest driver on the track and made up a 13-second deficit to Button in as many laps.

He passed the BAR when Button made his final pit stop on lap 43, but was too far behind to make any impression on Montoya and Alonso ahead of him, despite setting fastest lap on the final tour of the race.

Raikkonen's team-mate Montoya was under constant pressure from Alonso, who spent the closing laps just a second behind the Colombian.

Montoya deserved the win today, if only to prove everyone wrong, but he really must become more consistent

Alonso had been 7.1 seconds behind Montoya when the Colombian made his final stop on lap 44.

But Alonso stayed out five laps longer, enabling him to close the gap.

Crucially, the Renault driver was held up by Toyota's Jarno Trulli while lapping him, costing him the best part of two seconds.

That may well have been enough to prevent him taking the lead as he rejoined the track; instead, Montoya flashed past as the Renault rejoined the track.

Montoya said: "I had a good start and I knew Fernando was not able to risk too much and I was willing to risk more on that first lap.

I lost three seconds with Jarno but it was not his fault

Fernando Alonso on Jarno Trulli

"The team did a good strategy and called me in a lap early for my final stop and Fernando got some traffic as expected and that was enough."

Alonso refused to blame his former team-mate Trulli for holding him up.

"The (warning) blue flags (for slower cars) didn't work at all. I lost three seconds I think with Jarno but it was not his fault because there were no blue flags and he probably didn't know I was fighting for the victory."

Fisichella was also in the battle for the lead until his final stop, when Renault brought him in early.

Renault engineering chief Pat Symonds revealed after the race:" The team had to bring Fisichella in that point because we had given him less fuel than Alonso on his first stop."

But that turned out to be immaterial when Fisichella stalled leaving the pits, losing the final podium place to Raikkonen.

World champion Schumacher was never in the picture, dropping back rapidly from Raikkonen during the second stint.

But he managed to finish ahead of team-mate Barrichello, who did one more stop than the German.



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British Grand Prix result:

1. Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) McLaren 1hr 24mins 29.588secs
2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +00:02.739secs
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 00:14.436
4. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 00:17.914
5. Jenson Button (GB) BAR 00:40.264
6. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 01:15.322
7. Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 01:16.567
8. Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 01:19.212
9. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 01:20.851
10. Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 1 lap
11. Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 1 lap
12. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 1 lap
13. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull 1 lap
14. Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 1 lap
15. Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1 lap
16. Takuma Sato (Jap) BAR 2 laps
17. Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 2 laps
18. Christijan Albers (Net) Minardi 3 laps
19. Patrick Friesacher (Aut) Minardi 4 laps


Did not finish: Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 50 laps completed