MOTOR SPORT/Formula One Championship Brazilian Grand Prix: At last, Fernando Alonso can celebrate. At last, Flavio Briatore can lift the ban he imposed in the run-up to the Brazilian GP on parties celebrating the end of one reign and the crowning of the youngest pretender of them all. The Spaniard is champion.
Sure, the coronation will have to wait three weeks but the succession is effectively done. The 21-point lead Alonso holds over Kimi Raikkonen is, with just two races left, unassailable. The Spaniard could park his Renault in Japan and China and watch from the stands as Raikkonen powers to the kind of wins that have shown his McLaren to be the fastest but, crucially, the most fragile contender of the season and he would still be champion.
He has been a model of consistency. As Raikkonen and yesterday's winner, team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya, have been struck down by litany of disasters all season, Alonso has nursed a flagging Renault car to just the results he needed.
A string of victories in early season from Malaysia to Imola, the Nurburgring to Hockenheim gave way to a fight to cling on to an advantage that after the first quarter of the season looked like being demolished by Raikkonen, who blitzed to wins in Spain and Monaco.
Disaster plagued McLaren. At the European Grand Prix, Raikkonen, a lap from the sort of a win that should have defined a dominant season, was hurled off track when his suspension exploded. Its integrity was compromised by the buffeting caused by a severely worn front tyre. There were engine failures and the resultant grid demotions that left him struggling to make the podium, though he was often up to two seconds a lap quicker than the rest of the field.
And all the while, Alonso was banking points. Nothing fancy, simply enough to get to where he wanted to be. A lucky win after Raikkonen's blown suspension, second in Britain as Raikkonen battled from a penalty-induced position at the back of the grid, second in Istanbul after Montoya had been punted out of the position by Tiago Monteiro of Jordan. The same again in Belgium after the Colombian was hit by Williams's Antonio Pizzonia.
Yesterday in Sao Paulo, third was all he needed. And easing through a flawless, controlled race, he achieved the minimum required, almost appearing heedless of the frantic activity in front as Montoya raced to his third victory of the year, backed up by Raikkonen. As McLaren recorded the kind of one-two they have for weeks needed to get Raikkonen into a position where he could really challenge, there was a kind of cruel symmetry to its fruitlessness.
So Alonso could celebrate, exploding from the cockpit in parc ferme with a roar of triumph and relief to claim an unassailable title lead, to set himself up at 24 years of age as the youngest champion ever, relieving local hero Emerson Fittipaldi of the accolade he won 33 years ago. And in taking the drivers' title Alonso was almost speechless.
"Of course, it is impossible to say anything now," Alonso said after the race. "I did a good race, I thought we would fight McLaren but it was not possible. It was a very long race for me, obviously. I thought about the championship from the first lap . . . but the race had a few different parts and my team told me the last three or four laps might even be rain.
"I think I came from a country with no traditions in Formula One and I fought alone, basically, because I had no help from anyone," the Spaniard added. "I got into Formula One thanks to the results and this is the maximum I can achieve in my life."
And the champion is a worthy one - a model of consistency, determination, often sublime skill and endless calm. Just the sort of attributes which propelled the driver from whom he takes the title to so many victories. Michael Schumacher's five-year stranglehold was characterised by the same determination.
It is that unflagging commitment to perfection that has made Alonso a stellar talent in the eyes of all who have worked with him, from Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, who gave the Spaniard his first seat in F1, to Flavio Briatore, who had taken him from F3000 and groomed him as a potential champion, placing him with Stoddart in 2001 before taking him back to Renault for a season of skill-building, testing the following year, to his current engineering boss Pat Symonds, who this weekend said: "It's like dealing with a guy who has a destiny." Interlagos, Sao Paulo
after Race (71 laps):
1 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 1hr 29mins 20.574secs
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1:29:23.101
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:29:45.414
4 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:29:56.242
5 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:30:00.774
6 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:30:29.674
7 Jenson Button (Brit) BAR at 1 Lap
8 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota at 1 Lap
9 Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull at 1 Lap
10 Takuma Sato (Jpn) BAR at 1 Lap
11 Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber at 1 Lap
12 Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber at 1 Lap
13 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 2 Laps
14 Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi at 2 Laps
15 Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan at 3 Laps
Not Classified: 16 Tiago Monteiro (Por) Jordan 55 laps completed, 17 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 45 laps completed, 18 Robert Doornbos (Ned) Minardi 34 laps completed, 19 Antonio Pizzonia (Bra) Williams 0 laps completed, 20 David Coulthard (Brit) Red Bull 0 laps completed
World Championship Standings: (after rd 17 Drivers' Championship): 1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 111pts, 2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 86, 3 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 55, 4 Juan Montoya (Col) McLaren 50, 5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 43, 6 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 41, 7 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 38, 8 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 35, 9 Jenson Button (Brit) BAR 30, 10 Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 29.
Manufacturers' Championship: 1 Renault 152pts, 2 McLaren 146, 3 Ferrari 90, 4 Toyota 81, 5 Williams 59, 6 BAR 31, 7 Red Bull 27, 8 Sauber 17, 9 Jordan 12, 10 Minardi 7.
