MOTOR SPORT: Fernando Alonso stands on the brink of becoming only the eighth man in Formula One history to claim back-to-back titles after a sensational engine blow-up at yesterday's Japanese Grand Prix all but ended Michael Schumacher's chances of bowing out of the sport with an eighth world title as his parting gift.
Only Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jack Brabham, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen and Schumacher have retained the Formula One driver's championship title but after an enthralling race yesterday 2005 champion Alonso is set to join the illustrious group.
The Spaniard went into the weekend at the Suzuka circuit with his own hopes looking frail after a sequence of troubled races had let Schumacher draw level with him on points in the title race but marginally in control of the championship by virtue of having scored more wins.
And when the Renault driver qualified fifth on Saturday, to Schumacher's second, behind pole-winning team-mate Felipe Massa, it looked as if the defending world champion would have a mountain to climb in yesterday's race.
The opening phases of the race didn't do anything to disprove that notion.
At the start the twin Ferraris of Massa and Schumacher blasted into the distance, leaving Alonso to endure the frustration of being jammed in behind the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher.
The younger Schumacher and his team-mate had qualified fourth and fifth on Saturday edging out the Renaults to row three of the grid, but had clearly done so on low fuel in a bid to impress the Japanese manufacturer's home crowd.
That move left Alonso, who had dismissed Trulli at turn one of the opening lap, wedged behind the slower Ralf Schumacher for the first 10 laps. By the time the lead Toyota dived for the pits, Alonso was four second adrift of Michael Schumacher and the German had already passed his team-mate Massa to claim the lead.
Alonso managed to squeeze past Massa in the first pit stops, but the damage appeared to have been done. He was almost six second behind a flying Schumacher and it seemed the best he could hope for was a damage-limiting second, to go to Brazil two points behind the retiring seven-time champion.
But then on lap 37 Schumacher's car suddenly began to fail, a thick trickle of smoke from the left-hand side of the engine cover blossomed into a huge plume, one bank of his V8 engine seeming to erupt in spectacular fashion.
It was the sort of disaster that has become that most precious (for his rivals) of rarities - a Schumacher mechanical failure.
Alonso swept past, fist raised in the air, surely feeling he was getting some kind of poetic payback for the humiliations he suffered in China, when a pit wall mistake and pit stop wheel gun error wrecked his chances, and in Monza a month ago when a steward's decision penalised him 10 places on the grid and in trying to chase Schumacher his own engine blew.
The Spaniard then cruised to the finish and victory, celebrating wildly as the realisation dawned that, even if Schumacher wins in the season-ending race in Brazil in a fortnight, all he has to do is score a single point to retain his crown.
Schumacher was all too aware of that fact and afterwards conceded championship defeat.
"The drivers' title for me is finished, but we go to Brazil to win the constructors," he said after touring the Ferrari garage to thank each member of his team for their efforts. "Our team is great: the boys are the best I know. I'm very satisfied with all our mechanics and engineers in Ferrari. That's racing. You win and lose together.
"Today we all tried hard, we were first but lost the engine. That's Formula One. I'm not very disappointed. Life and racing is like this."
Alonso, though was jubilant, admitting to some sense of justice. "Victory means a lot, not only for me but the team as well," he said afterwards.
"We deserved this victory from a long time ago, from Hungary we were ready to win and we never finished the job," he said. "I had so many problems in the last couple of races, I lost one tyre in Hungary, I lost one engine in Monza and sometimes I need to recover these unlucky moments."
The Spaniard admitted he was surprised by his performance after a difficult qualifying.
"We never expected second, so victory is even better," he said. "And for sure when I saw Michael's problem I was at that point leading the race and I just didn't believe what I was seeing because it's not often that you see a mechanical problem for a Ferrari car.
"So it was a second surprise, but the biggest surprise of the race for sure."
But in advance of the final round in Sao Paulo he said there was still no room for complacency despite the advantage he now enjoys.
"The races are long, you have to finish the races, for sure it is important," he said. "But as we all thought, the championship will be decided in Brazil, we never know what is going to happen there. The same could happen so we will not take many risks there and we will try and win the championship."
Alonso will now head for Interlagos with a 10-point advantage. Both men have seven wins each, meaning the only way Schumacher can walk away from Formula One with a record eighth title is by winning at Interlagos and Alonso fails to score a point.
1. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:23:53.413
2. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari +00:16.151
3. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 00:23.953
4. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 00:34.101
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren 00:43.596
6. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 00:46.717
7. Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 00:48.869
8. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 01:16.095
9. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 01:16.932
10. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Cosworth 1 lap
Also: 11 Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) McLaren 1 lap; 12 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1 lap; 13 Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) RedBull-Ferrari 1 lap; 14 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1 lap; 15 Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri-Honda 1 lap; 16 Tiago Monteiro (Portugal) MF1 - Toyota 2 laps; 17 Sakon Yamamoto (Japan) Super Aguri-Honda 3 laps; 18 Scott Speed (US) Toro Rosso-Cosworth 5 laps r; Mark Webber (Australia) Williams-Cosworth 14 laps r; Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari 17 laps r; David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull-Ferrari 18 laps r; Christijan Albers (Netherlands) MF1-Toyota 33 laps.
Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso, 1:32.676, lap 14.
(rank: r = retired, nc = not classified).
DRIVER AND CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS
DRIVERS POINTS: 1 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 126; 2 Michael Schumacher (Germany) Ferrari 116; 3 Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 70; 4 Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Renault 69; 5 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) McLaren 61; 6 Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 50; 7 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 28; 8 Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) 26; 9 Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 23; 10 Ralf Schumacher (Germany) Toyota 20; 11 Pedro de la Rosa (Spain) McLaren 18; 12 Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 15; 13 David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 14; 14 Mark Webber (Australia) Williams 7; 15 Jacques Villeneuve (Canada) BMW Sauber 7; 16 Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 6; 17 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 4; 18 Christian Klien (Austria) Red Bull 2; 19 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy) Toro Rosso 1; 20 Scott Speed (US) Toro Rosso 0; 21 Tiago Monteiro (Portugal) MF1 Racing 0; 22 Christijan Albers (Netherlands) MF1 Racing 0; 23 Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri 0; 24 Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) Red Bull 0; 25 Yuji Ide (Japan) Super Aguri 0; 26 Franck Montagny (France) Super Aguri 0; 27 Sakon Yamamoto (Japan) Super Aguri 0.
CONSTRUCTORS POINTS: 1 Renault 195; 2 Ferrari 186; 3 McLaren-Mercedes 105; 4 Honda 78; 5 BMW Sauber 36; 6 Toyota 35; 7 RedBul-Ferrari 16; 8 Williams-Cosworth 11; 9 Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1; 10 MF1-Toyota 0; 11 Super Aguri-Honda 0.
