Raikkonen forces Alonso to remain patient

Motor Sport/ F1Championship: Virtue is supposedly its own reward, but Fernando Alonso must be thinking that a little payback is due. He has been a patient man. He has bided his time, steered a conservative course, avoided the kind of hasty push to resolution that might have wrecked his bid for Formula One title glory.

But now his patience must be wearing thin. Yesterday at Spa-Francorchamps, the Renault driver's chief title rivals McLaren again conspired to throw the championship into Alonso's path, albeit with another minor gift.

Kimi Raikkonen, desperate for a win to close the 27-point gap he was suffering to Alonso, scored his second consecutive victory in the Belgian Grand Prix to seal his part of the deal. And for a while it looked like Raikkonen's dearest wish, that Juan Pablo Montoya would do a team-mate's role and provide a bulwark against Alsono by claiming a McLaren one-two. Once again though, Montoya failed in that role.

After claiming pole position on Saturday, the Colombian had led for much of the race, which was run under damp conditions, but was passed by Raikkonen in the second set of pit stops - Montoya taking on more intermediate tyres and fuel on lap 33 and Raikkonen setting blistering in-lap times to bypass his team-mate on his exit from the pit lane at the start of lap 36.

But any compact the duo might have been indulging in, such as the quid pro quo that had seen Raikkonen hold up the traffic in a safety car period on lap 11 to allow Montoya to pit and exit before he did the same, came to an end.

On lap 40, safely tucked into second place, with Alonso a comfortable distance behind in third, Montoya came across Williams' Brazilian driver Antonio Pizzonia, standing in for Nick Heidfeld who had been sidelined for the second race in a row after a testing accident. Out of the view of the cameras the pair tangled, and both exited the race.

Montoya had ill-served in exactly the same way in Istanbul three weeks ago. The Finn will now surely scratch the Colombian's name off his Christmas card list.

As Montoya climbed from his wrecked McLaren, past swept the blue and yellow Renault of patient, conservative Alonso. With his pace deficit to the McLarens worsening by the week, the Spaniard is playing a percentage game in the dying weeks of this season. And as the risks at McLaren get more desperate, he is reaping the reward. Another second place, his championship lead shaved only marginally to 25 points. The reward must come soon.

Afterwards, Raikkonen lamented the missing of a one-two opportunity for McLaren. "It is unfortunate for the team whatever happened in the last few laps," said Raikkonen. "It is a shame we could not have the 1-2, because we deserved it. We had a perfect race for the team and I was happy with the car and how it went. We deserved to have both cars on the podium."

And Alonso was cheeky enough to thank his rivals for coming to his aid. "I had some help from McLaren and I was able to take two more points," said Alonso with a grin. "But it was not really important. The third place was good for me, but second is even better."

Alonso has been a patient man. In Sao Paulo in a fortnight virtue will surely reward him.

Away from the track, the weekend's major development was the sale of the Minardi team to energy drinks company, Red Bull.

The small Australian-Italian team had been the target of ex-grand prix driver Eddie Irvine, who, backed by Russian entrepreneur Roustam Tariko, had declared an interest in running a Formula One team.

But on Saturday in Spa, events overtook the Irishman as Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, who already runs Red Bull Racing in Formula One, snapped up Minardi for a reported $35 million (€23 million).

Mateschitz insisted that the team would be run as a junior outfit to supply young drivers to Red Bull Racing and training engineers, but the move is also being perceived as political, with the Austrian securing a second vote with F1's arcane power structure of teams, a vote which will be allied to Bernie Ecclestone, who has already convinced Mateschitz to sign up to his new Concorde agreement for 2007, formulated in defiance of a planned breakaway series by car manufacturer-owned teams.

Whether Irvine chooses to renew his interest in Jordan, despite its owners, Midland, denying the team is for sale, remains to be seen.

Belgian Grand Prix

Final Race Positions (44 Laps)

1 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1hrs 30mins 01.295secs

2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 01:30:29.298

3 Jenson Button (Eng) BAR 01:31:01.298

4 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 01:32:10.299

5 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 01:33:28.300

6 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 01:34:55.304

7 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 01:36:22.309

8 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 01:36:22.309

9 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 01:36:22.309

10 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 01:36:22.309

11 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan 01:36:22.309, 12 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi 01:36:22.309, 13 Robert Doornbos (Ned) Minardi 01:36:22.309, 14 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 01:36:22.309, 15 Antonio Pizzonia (Bra) Williams 01:36:22.309, 16 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 01:36:22.309, 17 David Coulthard (Sco) Red Bull at 26 laps, 18 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR at 31 laps, 19 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari at 31 laps, 20 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault at 34 laps.

DRIVERS' CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 111pts, 2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 86, 3 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 55, 4 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 50, 5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 43, 6 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 41, 7 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 37, 8 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 35, 9 Jenson Button (Eng) BAR 30, 10 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 29.

CONSTRUCTORS': 1 Renault 152pts, 2 McLaren 146, 3 Ferrari 90, 4 Toyota 80, 5 Williams 59, 6 BAR 31, 7 Red Bull 27, 8 Sauber 17, 9 Jordan 12, 10 Minardi 7.