When 'best win so far' put Alonso on path to first title

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On this day in 2005, Fernando Alonso took a brilliant victory over Michael Schumacher in the San Marino GP that confirmed the Spaniard as a genuine title contender.

The race at Imola's Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari saw Kimi Raikkonen start on pole, but the McLaren retired from the race after nine laps with driveshaft problems leaving Alonso in control.

Even so, the final part of the race saw him hunted down by a charging Schumacher who was fighting back from a disappointing qualifying that had left the Ferrari starting the race from a distant 13th place on the grid and being held up for a large part of the race by Toyota's Jarno Trulli..

Alonso was delighted after managing to hold on to the lead all the way to the chequered flag.

"I think this was my best win in Formula 1 so far, because it was different to all the others.

"I didn't have a gap to allow me to be conservative, and I knew Michael was catching up from behind and that meant I had to push all the way through the race. In the end, it worked perfectly and things were very close in the final laps, but I was 99 per cent sure he would not be able to overtake here in Imola."

It was Alonso's fourth career win in Formula 1 and his third win that season for Renault after victories in Malaysia and Bahrain.

Alonso never lost the lead of the championship standings for the rest of the season, with Raikkonen eventually moving up to second place ahead of Schumacher by the final race of the season in China.

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.