2005 San Marino Grand Prix

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2004 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Report

Background

Vitantonio Liuzzi replaced Christian Klien in the second Red Bull car, for this and the next three races; after unanimous agreement between the teams, Klien was allowed to drive car #37 for Red Bull in the Friday practice sessions. Alexander Wurz drove the second McLaren-Mercedes car, in place of the injured Juan Pablo Montoya, marking Wurz's first full Grand Prix entry since the 2000 Malaysian Grand Prix. During the first qualifying session on Saturday, Red Bull announced that they would use Ferrari engines for two years, beginning from the 2006 season.

Race

Räikkönen led from pole, pulling out a gap of several seconds, before his McLaren retired on lap nine with driveshaft problems. Alonso took over the lead, and was unchallenged until lap 50, when Michael Schumacher emerged from the pits just behind him. Schumacher had started 13th, and had been unable to pass Jarno Trulli for 20 laps, until the Italian pitted allowing Schumacher to increase his pace. After pitting himself, he emerged in third place ahead of Trulli and started to catch race leader Alonso. He caught up with second place driver Jenson Button and overtook him, overturning a 20-second gap in 13 laps. After the second round of pit-stops he emerged from the pits seconds behind Alonso. The next 12 laps saw the two battle for the lead but Schumacher was unable to overtake Alonso who took the race victory. Third was Button, followed by Wurz's McLaren, Takuma Sato, Jacques Villeneuve, Trulli and Ralf Schumacher. Ralf was later given a 25-second penalty as he was released into the path of Nick Heidfeld; this temporarily dropped him to 11th place.

Post-race

During checks after the race it was found that Button's car had been under the 600 kg minimum weight requirement when drained of fuel. The race stewards cleared Button, as they believed data provided by BAR-Honda was sufficient to prove that they had been operating inside the rules, but the FIA appealed sending them to court. They were found guilty, but the FIA's preferred penalty of having the team disqualified from the championship for the year was not carried through, and they were given a two-race ban, starting from the next round in Spain. In addition, Button's teammate Sato, who had finished 5th on the track, was disqualified from the race despite his car not being found to be underweight. Wurz was thus promoted to third, followed by Villeneuve, Trulli, Heidfeld, Mark Webber and Liuzzi.

Classification

Qualifying

Qualifying times from both Saturday and Sunday morning.

;Notes

• – Christijan Albers was left without a time in Q2 after spinning off the track.
• – Felipe Massa, Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers received a 10-place grid penalty for engine changes.

Race

;Notes

• – Post-race, Ralf Schumacher was penalised 25 seconds for being released unsafely into the path of Nick Heidfeld from his second pitstop; Toyota withdrew their initial appeal before the hearing.
• – Also post-race, Jenson Button's car was found to be 4.99 kg (11 lb) underweight; stewards initially accepted BAR's explanation as a fuel system anomaly on April 25. However, on May 5, an FIA court of appeal disqualified both BAR cars and banned them from the next two races for "highly regrettable negligence and lack of transparency", noting that BAR's fuel system effectively "used fuel as ballast", illegal under current Formula One regulations.

Championship standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Notes

References

|Previous_year's_race = 2004 San Marino Grand Prix |Next_year's_race = 2006 San Marino Grand Prix

References

1. (25 April 2005). "Pitlane Politics". GrandPrix.com.
2. (25 April 2005). "The FIA versus the FIA". GrandPrix.com.
3. (5 May 2005). "Button's BAR banned for two races". Guardian News and Media Limited.
4. "FORMULA 1 Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino 2005 - Saturday Qualifying". Formula1.com Limited.
5. "FORMULA 1 Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino 2005 - Sunday Qualifying". Formula1.com Limited.
6. "Starting grid".
7. "FORMULA 1 Gran Premio Foster's di San Marino 2005 - Race". Formula1.com Limited.
8. (24 April 2005). "2005 San Marino Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive".
9. (5 May 2005). "Tribunal bans Button for two races, takes away points". Sportsline.com.
10. (5 May 2005). "BAR team handed two-race ban". Formula1.com Limited.
11. "San Marino 2005 - Championship • STATS F1".