Montoya's McLaren had ripped over a drain cover, which punched holes into a number of the cars important bits - though fortunately none of Pablo's, in what could have been a very serious incident. The cars pitted and Fisi backed the field up á la McLaren at Spa, but the FIA had made it clear that this would no longer be tolerated and he was given a drive-through penalty.

Schuey's terrible season came to an end after 22 laps when he spun out in the first safety car period, but his third place in the Drivers' Championship was secured when Montoya retired.

When the safety car went in Alonso headed off into distance again and his lead was up to 13 seconds when the safety car came out again when Karthikeyan had a huge shunt - smashing his car to pieces against the tyre wall. The Indian sat in the shattered car for a long time with flames licking around it, the marshalls seemingly inactive. Happily he was unscathed.

The top four dived into the pits and the McLaren crew used the opportunity to get Raikkonen ahead of Fisichella. Rubens had been running in fourth place, but under heavy pressure from Webber he went wide and the Australian went through followed by Button. A lap later Coulthud did him and he continued to fall down through the field, finally coming home 12th behind Monteiro, a sad way to end his career as a Ferrari driver, especially in a race he won last year. Monteiro has been the best of a poor set of rookies this year - talent seemingly not being the major factor taken into account with any but Liuzzi - and he was disappointing.

Alonso won and seemed even more pleased to have clinched the Constructors' title than he did the Drivers', nailing his V10 whilst parked in the pit lane until it caught fire! Raikkonen was second and Ralf took his second podium for Toyota having run in second place before his final pit stop dropped him behind the Finn. This moves Ralf ahead of his team-mate in the drivers' Championship, Trulli having outshone him for much of the year - it's amazing how Ralf picked it up at the season-end!

Christian Klien, surely the most improved driver of the year, took an excellent fifth place, with Ruben's replacement Massa sixth in his last race for Sauber. Webber took a solid seventh place for Williams and Button the last point in the last race for BAR, this week's excuse being that he'd lost three places under the safety car. It would be interesting to know how much their F1 adventure cost BAT and how many zillions of fags it represents.

So, the 2005 season came to an end, notable for Ferrari's fall from grace, occasional outbreaks of racing, the virtual disappearance of independent teams, Alonso and Renault's well-earned titles, beating the fast but fragile McLarens and their fallible drivers. We tifosi must hope that next year a new formula means a new opportunity - Forza Ferrari!


Footnote
In my pre-season preview I predicted the results on this year's Constructors' Championship based on pre-season testing times (neither Jordan or Minardi did any tests which were meaningful for comparison). It isn't too far out, especially when you consider that Ferrari would have been fourth but for the USGP. BAR and Toyota are a good bit out, but the former did suffer disqualification at San Marino, a subsequent two race ban and its knock-on effects.

We would like to dedicate this last GP report of the year to Frank Bott who wrote the final report last year. Sadly, it was to be his last as he passed away in February.
We're missing you Franco! - Ed.

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