By Nick Sparkes
September 11 2005

Panasonic Toyota Racing looked set for their best finish yet, first with Jarno Trullis strong performance during the first 11 laps and later Ralf Schumachers stellar drive up to the back of Montoya’s McLaren. But wrong tyre choices left the team walking away with just 2 points, out of a possible 18. The start was damp, with possible showers towards the end, althought these never came. Everybody started on intermediates, which would be the key tyre throughout the Grand Prix.

Jarno Trulli got a great start in his Toyota, tagging onto the back of both McLaren’s during the first 11 laps until Giancarlo Fisichella spun his Renault at the top of Eau Rouge bringing out the safety car. This forced Jarno to drop back, whilst Ralf Schumacher who stopped a lap early found himself in third position behind Jacques Villeneuve and Juan Pablo Montoya. Ralf moved ahead of Jacques after the restart and drove up to the back of Montoya’s McLaren before Ralf made his second stop. But a gamble on dry tyres failed to come off, with Ralf spinning on his out lap, forcing the Toyota driver to change back onto intermediates a lap later.

Up front Montoya controlled the race with his teammate Kimi Raikkonen large in his mirrors. The team called Montoya in first for the final round of pit stops, allowing Kimi some clear air to allow the flying Finn to build a gap in his quest for victory. Once Kimi made his stop, he exited the pit lane ahead of his teammate, a McLaren one-two looked certain.

Yet, in the final six laps, the track was all but dry, with some of the runners pitting for slicks, the advantage so huge. Both Williams drivers and Ralf Schumacher pitted for slicks, their times 10 seconds faster than the drivers on intermediates. With only a couple of laps left, Montoya got involved with a fast recovering Williams of Antonio Pizzonia on dry tyres, both cars retiring after an incident on the entry to the Fagne Chicane. This allowed Fernando Alonso up into second, with Jenson Button a deserving third.

Jarno Trulli spun off after an incident involving Montero’s Jordan, whilst Ralf Schumacher took the fastest lap and seventh position thanks to his late change to slick tyres.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Kph	Best	Lap
1	K. Raikkonen	Team McLaren Mercedes	44	1:30:01.295		204.568	1:53.810	34
2	F. Alonso	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	44	1:30:29.689	+28.394	203.499	1:56.131	31
3	J. Button	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	44	1:30:33.372	+32.077	203.361	1:53.323	44
4	M. Webber	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	44	1:31:10.462	+1:09.167	201.982	1:52.287	44
5	R. Barrichello	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	44	1:31:19.431	+1:18.136	201.651	1:52.590	44
6	J. Villeneuve	Sauber Petronas	44	1:31:28.730	+1:27.435	201.310	1:54.251	44
7	R. Schumacher	Panasonic Toyota Racing	44	1:31:28.869	+1:27.574	201.305	1:51.453	43
8	T. Monteiro	Jordan Grand Prix	43	1:30:02.004	+1lap	199.893	1:57.886	41
9	C. Klien	Red Bull Racing	43	1:30:15.290	+1lap	199.402	1:52.582	43
10	F. Massa	Sauber Petronas	43	1:30:52.661	+1lap	198.036	1:57.748	28
11	N. Karthikeyan	Jordan Grand Prix	43	1:30:53.970	+1lap	197.988	1:55.885	43
12	C. Albers	Minardi F1 Team	42	1:31:36.029	+2laps	191.904	2:01.627	6
13	R. Doornbos	Minardi F1 Team	41	1:30:26.656	+3laps	189.729	2:01.148	38
14	J. Montoya	Team McLaren Mercedes	40	1:22:21.834	DNF	203.261	1:55.988	14
15	A. Pizzonia	BMW WilliamsF1 Team	39	1:22:09.425	DNF	198.678	1:57.541	32
Not Classified
	J. Trulli	Panasonic Toyota Racing	34	1:11:57.801	DNF	197.739	1:56.953	3
	D. Coulthard	Red Bull Racing	18	0:39:17.601	DNF	191.713	1:58.451	8
	M. Schumacher	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	13	0:29:10.948	DNF	186.422	1:57.444	10
	T. Sato	Lucky Strike BAR Honda	13	0:29:11.055	DNF	186.410	1:57.534	10
	G. Fisichella	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	10	0:20:00.697	DNF	209.107	1:57.117	9

Times courtesy of toyota-f1.com