SUZUKA, Japan (Reuters) - World champion Fernando Alonso hailed his surprise Japanese Grand Prix victory as a gift from God on Sunday after an engine failure left Michael Schumacher's Formula One title hopes in tatters.
The penultimate race of a hard-fought season left the Renault driver 10 points clear of his Ferrari foe and needing just one more point to seal the championship for the second year in a row.
After two retirements in the previous four races, in Hungary and in Italy, the Spaniard felt the wheel of fortune had finally turned his way again.
"It was not only Monza where we lose points, I think we had very unlucky moments in Hungary as well and in some other places as well -- China -- so we lost a lot of points in bad luck moments," he told a news conference.
"For sure these 10 points are a little present that God gave to us," he added after his seventh win of the season but first since Canada in June.
Alonso had led last weekend in China only to lose out to Schumacher after he and the team made a wrong tire choice at his first pitstop.
In Monza he was penalized five places to 10th on the starting grid for allegedly impeding Ferrari's Felipe Massa in qualifying and was then sidelined when his engine blew.
The 25-year-old led in Hungary before a wheel nut came loose and pitched him out. Continued...
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
The penultimate race of a hard-fought season left the Renault driver 10 points clear of his Ferrari foe and needing just one more point to seal the championship for the second year in a row.
After two retirements in the previous four races, in Hungary and in Italy, the Spaniard felt the wheel of fortune had finally turned his way again.
"It was not only Monza where we lose points, I think we had very unlucky moments in Hungary as well and in some other places as well -- China -- so we lost a lot of points in bad luck moments," he told a news conference.
"For sure these 10 points are a little present that God gave to us," he added after his seventh win of the season but first since Canada in June.
Alonso had led last weekend in China only to lose out to Schumacher after he and the team made a wrong tire choice at his first pitstop.
In Monza he was penalized five places to 10th on the starting grid for allegedly impeding Ferrari's Felipe Massa in qualifying and was then sidelined when his engine blew.
The 25-year-old led in Hungary before a wheel nut came loose and pitched him out. Continued...
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
With this win Michael Schumacher effectivly takes himself Out of the running for the championship, regardless Michael will go down as the all time winningest driver in F1
History.
J.
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