In-control Alonso steadies the nerves

MOTORSPORT/French GP: If the US GP at Indianapolis was about chaos and disorder, yesterday's French Grand Prix was a case of neat and tidy does it. No dramas, no controversy - just steady as she goes. A quiet rehabilitation in the rural Nievre region, far from the madding crowds of Paris courtrooms and baying, bottle-throwing Indy crowds.

There was one moment midway through the 70 laps when Fernando Alonso's commanding lead was briefly threatened by a hard-charging Kimi Raikkonen, but it was the briefest quickening of the pulse. There would be no denying Renault a hometown win, nothing to halt a return to respectability for Michelin, the tyre company which had kicked off the sport's latest furious round of internal squabbling and blood-letting with their failure to bring suitable tyres to the American mid-west a fortnight ago.

In truth, the French Grand Prix as a contest was over on Friday when Raikkonen suffered an engine problem, which necessitated a powerplant change which cost him 10 places on the grid after Saturday's qualifying session. He notched the third-fastest time in that one-hour session, behind Jarno Trulli and pole-winner Fernando Alonso. Had he been able to start from that position Magny-Cours might have witnessed a race, possibly a thrilling one.

But it wasn't to be. Raikkonen's march from 13th at the start was hugely impressive and once again marks McLaren as the only team currently capable of matching Renault for pace but it was never going to be enough to catch Alonso.

The Spaniard, on a three-stop strategy made a phenomenal start, disappearing from the following Trulli's sight almost as soon as the car's had reached the Estoril corner.

With Toyota driver Trulli appearing to hold up the rest of the chasing pack, made up of Michael Schumacher, Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello and the BAR of Takuma Sato, Alonso was given free rein, on a light fuel load, to open up a gap of almost unbridgeable proportions.

By lap 10 the Spaniard was 12.9 seconds up on Trulli. Two laps later he had earned himself almost two more seconds. Behind Trulli, Schumacher, Barrichello and BAR jostled and feinted, seeking a way past the Italian. But it would not be until the first round of pit stops that Schumacher was able to get past the Toyota. Lacking the pace and position to fight back against Alonso the race appeared done and dusted.

Raikkonen, though, clearly had other ideas. More heavily fuelled than the bulk of the field, Raikkonen was still able to carve his way through the field, to the point that by the 22nd lap, and the stage when the three-stopping cars had all visited the pitlane for the first time, the Finn had climbed to third place, behind team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya and just 13.5 seconds behind Alonso.

Hope of a closing-stages battle between the two flared but charged with closing the gap sufficiently before his own stop, Raikkonen couldn't up the pace sufficiently. He closed to within nine seconds before his own first stop but he emerged 30 seconds adrift. Alonso's advantage was just too great, too comfortable.

When Montoya exited the race on lap 48 with hydraulic problems, Raikkonen looked to have another stab. Again the deficit ebbed and flowed but after the pair's last stops, Raikkonen, with 18 seconds to make up in 12 laps knew the game was up. The pair, a full minute ahead of third-placed Michael Schumacher, cruised to the finish to cement their positions at the top of the drivers' table.

FrenchGrandPrix at Magny Cours

70 laps: 1 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 1hr 31mins 22.232secs, 2 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren at 11.8secs, 3 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari at 81.9secs, 4 J Button (Brit) BAR at 1 lap, 5 J Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1 lap, 6 G Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1 lap, 7 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1 lap, 8 J Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 1 lap, 9 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1 lap, 10 D Coulthard (Brit) Red Bull 1 lap, 11 T Sato (Jpn) BAR 1 lap, 12 M Webber (Aus) Williams 2 laps, 13 T Monteiro (Por) Jordan 3 laps, 14 N Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 4 laps, 15 N Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 4 laps Did not finish: J Montoya (Col) McLaren 46 laps completed, C Albers (Ned) Minardi 37 laps completed, P Freisacher (Aut) Minardi 34 laps completed, F Massa (Bra) Sauber 30 laps completed, C Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1 lap completed.

World Championship Standings - Drivers: 1 Alonso 69pts, 2 Raikkonen 45, 3 Michael Schumacher 40, 4 Trulli 31, 5 Barrichello 29, 6 Heidfeld 25, 7 Webber 22, 8 Ralf Schumacher 22, 9 Giancarlo Fisichella 20, 10 Coulthard 17, 11 Montoya 16, 12 Massa 7, 13 Monteiro 6, 14 Villeneuve 6, 15 Alexander Wurz (Aut) McLaren 6, 16 Button 5, 17 Karthikeyan 5, 18 Pedro de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren 4, 19 Albers 4, 20 Klien 4, 21 Freisacher 3, 22 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Red Bull 1. Manufacturers: 1 Renault 89, 2 McLaren 71, 3 Ferrari 69, 4 Toyota 53, 5 Williams 47, 6 Red Bull 22, 7 Sauber 13, 8 Jordan 11, 9 Minardi 7, 10 BAR 5.