FORMULA ONE German Grand Prix: The Raikkonen curse struck again. After stating as emphatic a case as he could possibly make in Saturday's qualifying session, a lightning-quick lap fast enough to melt the soul of championship leader Fernando Alonso, the Finn, coming off the back of two disastrous engine-related failures in the past two races, was entitled to e a sigh of confident relief.

But in the end it was the Iceman, as Raikkonen is known, who melted and Alonso who breathed easy, the Renault-driving Spaniard taking his sixth win of the season after Raikkonen's McLaren had ground to a halt on the 36th lap, sidelined by a hydraulic failure.

Three races, three exits, third time down. Raikkonen's title hopes are sinking fast, holed below the waterline by his own team, an outfit which has built an alarmingly quick car but one which will not hold together for a race distance. It was all too familiar for Raikkonen.

He walked away from the car with barely a backward glance. A quarter of an hour later he was stepping into a limousine outside the paddock and being whisked away.

It had all looked so good for the Finn in the opening half of the 67-lap race. He powered away from the lights, pursued by a hard-charging Alonso - who had started third. A bold move around the outside of turn one had been brushed aside by the McLaren star and, challenge dismissed, he set about the business of eradicating any further threat from the Spaniard.

It was all too easy as well. At times lapping a second faster than Alonso, Raikkonen set an unmatchable pace. The Renault driver attempted a fightback in the opening stint, but as the pair edged towards the first of their two pit stops, Raikkonen had carved out a 9.3-second lead. By lap 28 he had extended the gap to 11 seconds.

Alonso's race looked run.

In truth the defeat would not have, in the short-term, inconvenienced the Spaniard unduly. Enjoying a 26-point lead in the race for the drivers' title before the start yesterday, a second-place finish would have suited fine.

But for Raikkonen a win was crucial. But it was not to be. On lap 36, he suddenly slowed, pulled across to the run-off area and walked away from the race and quite possibly the title contest.

"What can I say?" the 25-year-old responded. "It's always terrible to retire; whilst in the lead with a good gap to the number two car it's even worse. This is the worst thing that could have happened as it looked like the race was in the bag."

Alonso was predictably overjoyed by a victory he should not have enjoyed. "It was a fantastic day and perfect for me," Alonso said after cruising to another victory. "The McLaren was so dominant all weekend. We had a better race pace than we did in qualifying and for the next races we still need to improve if we want to beat them because they are still a bit quicker than us. But the race is 70 laps, not 30, and we finished."

Juan Pablo Montoya yesterday drove an outstanding race to climb from dead-last on the grid in 20th, to a startling second place. The Colombian crashed in qualifying and with no time recorded was forced to start at the back.

He drove with a ferocity and coolness that has been little seen since his big-money move to McLaren at the start of the season.

It was a good day for Jenson Button who lost out at the start, dropping behind Michael Schumacher but he chased down the champion throughout the race and eventually muscled past the Ferrari into the hairpin on lap 46.