SPAIN: MOTOR RACING - Fernando Alonso's fans in his home town of Oviedo celebrate his second consecutive F1 championship title at the Brazilian Grand Prix

Renault's Fernando Alonso took his second successive Formula One title on Sunday (October 22), to the great delight of his many fans in his home town of Oviedo, northern Spain. Alonso finished runner-up in the Brazilian Grand Prix won by Ferrari's local favourite, Felipe Massa. Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, in the final race of his career, showed all his grit and determination to go from last to fourth after a ninth-lap puncture crippled his challenge for victory. Renault retained the constructors' championship they won last year with 206 points to Ferrari's 201. Alonso ended the season with 134 points, 13 more than Schumacher. It was Massa's second career victory and made him the first Brazilian to win at home since Ayrton Senna in 1993. He took the chequered flag in glorious isolation, 18.6 seconds clear of Alonso, to a rapturous roar from the crowd. Briton Jenson Button was third for Honda. One Alonso fan in Oviedo told Reuters: "What's happened is what had to happen: Alonso is world champion again. It was clear, he had it easier than ever. He did a very good race. What was clear was that Schumacher, however much he caught up, was not going to win the race -- that was clear. So now we'll wait to see if he will be champion again. And to celebrate it here till we finish, like last year, Alonso was best. And next year with a better car he'll be champion again that's clear." Schumacher, 10 points behind Alonso but with seven wins each, had needed one last victory to have any hope of an unprecedented eighth title while the Spaniard required only a single point from his last race with Renault before joining McLaren.

ITN Source | October 24, 2006

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