Raikkonen wins as Alonso draws a blank in Montreal

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen won the Canadian Grand Prix and roared back into the Formula One title reckoning yesterday as Renault's championship leader Fernando Alonso drew a blank.

Raikkonen's third win in four races left him 22 points adrift of the 23-year-old Renault driver with 11 races remaining.

"We were a little bit lucky today but we were so unlucky in the last race," said Raikkonen, who crashed out of the European Grand Prix two weeks ago on the last lap while leading Alonso.

"We got those 10 points back. We are definitely back in the championship, back and fighting again."

On a humid afternoon full of drama, McLaren were deprived of a likely one-two by the exclusion of fiery Juan Pablo Montoya while Alonso was sidelined by his first retirement of the season.

Instead, struggling Ferrari had their best race of the season so far despite their losing streak now stretching to nine grands prix.

Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher took second place with Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello third after starting from the pit lane.

BAR's roller-coaster season hit a new low after the high of Jenson Button's pole position, the Honda-powered team leaving Montreal still with no points from eight races after finishing last year as overall runners-up.

Button hit the wall on the final corner before the pit straight on lap 48, an accident that briefly brought out the safety car and indirectly led to Montoya's exclusion.

With McLaren looking at a one-two finish, despite Raikkonen wrestling with a steering problem, the Colombian left the pit lane under a red light as the field was passing behind the safety car. Stewards excluded him.

Brazilian Felipe Massa was fourth in a Sauber, with Australian Mark Webber fifth for Williams and Ralf Schumacher sixth for Toyota.

David Coulthard seized two points for Red Bull with team-mate Christian Klien taking another in eighth place on his return after four races as reserve.

The big losers were Renault, whose drivers made a storming start from the second row, Giancarlo Fisichella whistling past Schumacher and Button on one side while Alonso punched through on the other.

Suspicions that the two front row cars had qualified light on fuel proved well-founded, with Schumacher the first to pit at the end of lap 12 and Button coming in three laps later.

With them out of the way, the race turned into a duel between the championship leaders and closest rivals McLaren before fate ripped up the script.

Fisichella ran in front for almost half the race but retired on lap 33, slowing as Alonso sped past and cruising back to the pits.

Alonso's lead lasted six laps before the Spaniard, winner of four races so far, also retired.

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore was philosophical about the double blow: "It's Formula One, one bad day it happens, it happens to somebody else, it happens to us, it's part of the game," said the flamboyant Italian.

Renault still lead the constructors' championship with 76 points to McLaren's 63.