The third race of the current campaign was dominated by the news that McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya injured his shoulder while playing tennis, allowing Pedro de la Rosa to make an unexpected Grand Prix comeback and the expectations surrounding the new Ferrari F2005 car rushed into service. The latter seemed to do the job as Michael Schumacher qualified in second place on the grid behind championship leader Alonso. De la Rosa, however, started down the field as Trulli took third, ahead of Heidfeld, Webber and Ralph Schumacher.
Alonso was fast away but stalked by Schumacher until hydraulic failure forced the German out of the race for his first technical retirement in two-and-a-half years. His car was quite obviously introduced prematurely and the gamble did not pay off. Trulli was next to give chase but losing close to a second per lap on the leading Renault. That was still better than the remainder of the field could muster, the race finishing in that order with Raikkonen taking third. Alonso and Renault are quite obviously the dominant force in Formula One this season.
