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"  Renault&amp;#039;s Fernando Alonso extended his World Championship lead by scoring his fourth victory of the season in the European GP at the N\u00FCrburgring. However, it came at the expense of chief rival Kimi Raikkonen, who crashed into retirement after suffering a spectacular suspension failure on the last lap.   Having dominated the last two Grands Prix, and retiring while leading at Imola before that, Raikkonen again demonstrated his speed. He qualified second to Nick Heidfeld of BMW Williams, but jumped into the lead at the start and pulled away with ease.   There was chaos behind him at Turn One as his teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was hit by Mark Webber, triggering a multi-car incident. Only Webber retired, but Montoya, both Ferrari drivers, Takuma Sato and Ralf Schumacher were among those to lose valuable time.   All went well up front for Raikkonen until he locked the front right tire while trying to lap the Sauber of Jacques Villeneuve. Because tires are now used for the entire race, they are more vulnerable to such flat-spotting, and as the race progressed, the problem got worse, with the Finn experiencing a severe vibration that was clearly visible on TV.   As Alonso gradually closed in, Kimi debated with his team whether to pit or stay out. The FIA&amp;#039;s rules allow for the replacement of single damaged tires for safety reasons, but Raikkonen chose to gamble and stay out.   He nearly made it, but just after he headed into the last lap the abused front right suspension failed as he braked for Turn One. The wheel remained attached to the car by the safety tethers as Kimi spun into the tire wall, narrowly missing an impact with an innocent Jenson Button, who was turning into the corner.   Alonso picked his way through the wreckage to claim the win. Instead of seeing his lead cut to 20 points, he extended it to 32.   Heidfeld took second place for Williams. The race revealed that the German earned his pole with a light fuel load in qualifying. Aware that it didn&amp;#039;t have the pace of McLaren or Renault, the team used a three-stop strategy to sprint him ahead of his real opposition. Ferrari had a generally uncompetitive weekend, but Rubens Barrichello came through to take third after also stopping three times. Michael Schumacher was a low-key fifth.   The Italian cars were split by the Red Bull of David Coulthard, who avoided the first lap accident and jumped from 12th up to fourth. Thereafter, the veteran Scot surprised many by showing enough pace to stay where he was. Indeed but for a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding, he might have pipped Barrichello for third.   Montoya recovered to sixth, despite carrying body damage from the first lap collision for the duration of the race. Giancarlo Fisichella took seventh in the second Renault, having started from the pitlane after his engine stalled on the grid. Jarno Trulli had a disappointing run to eighth for Toyota, while after pitting to change his car&amp;#039;s nose, teammate Ralf Schumacher later spun into a gravel trap.   Toyota at least did better than rivals BAR , back after sitting out a two-race ban. The cars were off the pace all weekend. Button could do no better than 10th, while Sato finished 12th. The series now heads across the Atlantic for Montreal and Indy.   Pos / Driver / Team / Time 1. Alonso Renault (M) 1h:31:46.648 2. Heidfeld Williams-BMW (M) + 16.567 3. Barrichello Ferrari (B) + 18.549 4. Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth (M) + 31.588 5. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) + 50.445 6. Fisichella Renault (M) + 51.932 7. Montoya McLaren-Mercedes (M) + 58.173 8. Trulli Toyota (M) + 1:11.091 9. Liuzzi Red Bull-Cosworth (M) + 1:11.500 10. Button BAR-Honda (M) + 1:25.700 11. Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) + 1 lap 12. Sato BAR-Honda (M) + 1 lap 13. Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas (M) + 1 lap 14. Massa Sauber-Petronas (M) + 1 lap 15. Monteiro Jordan-Toyota (B) + 1 lap 16. Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota (B) + 1 lap 17. Albers Minardi-Cosworth (B) + 2 laps 18. Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth (B) + 3 laps "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/motorsports/news/a11238/european-grand-prix-race-report/>