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The Imola GP is not a race that one would expect to put on a spectacle. The track is fast, but it lacks the big braking points that allow cars to get alongside and even make an overtake. Tough as they may be, however, overtakes do happen on the track!
And sometimes, you end up getting a race where two of the best drivers on the grid separate themselves from the pack and put on an exhibition of talent and utter ruthlessness. That was what Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher did in 2005 and put together what is still referred to as a classic.
The Context
Now before we jump straight to what happened, it's important that we first set the context for everyone. The year was 2005. It was the first time in 5 years that Ferrari had been caught out by the regulation changes.
The new regulations meant that the cars could not change their tires in the race and had to do a race distance on them. These regulations handicapped Ferrari as their Bridgestone tires were at a severe disadvantage in these regulations, unlike the Michelin ones.
As a result, we had Renault's Fernando Alonso and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen squaring off for the title with Ferrari nowhere in the picture. At Imola, however, conditions appeared more favorable for Scuderia as Michael Schumacher showed impressive pace during practice. In the Imola GP qualifying session, however, Schumacher made a mistake on his flying lap that left him 13th on the grid while Raikkonen qualified on pole. Meanwhile, Alonso qualified second right on the tail of the McLaren and no one knew what was in store for the race.
The Misery and the Heartbreak
Kimi Raikkonen led the Imola GP from the start and was in a league of his own. No driver or car could compete with him that day, such was his pace. Just like many other races that season (because of which Raikkonen eventually lost the title), however, the Finn would retire from the race on lap 9 with a driveshaft failure.
What that did was it left the lead in the hands of Fernando Alonso, who was streaking away from the BAR-Honda of Jenson Button behind him. Alonso had a comfortable lead over Button while Michael Schumacher spent the first twenty laps of his race stuck behind Jarno Trulli in a Toyota.
As soon as Trulli pitted, however, Schumacher started unleashing a kind of pace that the Ferrari had not shown before in the season. The car was more than a second a lap quicker than anything else on the grid, including Alonso.
Taking advantage of a low fuel load and pitting later in the Imola GP, Schumacher menacingly ate into the gap at the front. After the second pitstop, he was right behind Alonso, snapping at his heels in a car that looked significantly faster than the Spaniard's Renault.
The ultimate battle at the Imola GP
After the second pitstop, the stage was set! Fernando Alonso had 12 laps to keep Michael Schumacher at bay. At the time, this was a true "passing the baton" moment in the sport. Schumacher, a marauding talent and the greatest driver in the history of the sport, chased down this young pretender who wanted to take his crown.
What the German had in his favor was a car working perfectly around the track. What Alonso had, however, was the advantage of a track that was not conducive to overtakes. For Schumacher to stick an overtake, he not only had to be perfect, but he also had to rely on a mistake from Alonso.
In the end, the Spaniard made no mistakes in the race, and consequently, beat the F1 legend in a straight shootout at the Imola GP. This was one of the races that legitimized Fernando Alonso's title, as his prime competitor suffered from severe reliability issues throughout the season.
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