Alonso makes it four wins in a row

Renault's world champion Fernando Alonso produced some Montreal magic to win the Canadian Grand Prix yesterday and deal another blow to Michael Schumacher's fading title hopes.

The 24-year-old Spaniard's fourth successive win, and sixth in nine races, stretched his overall lead over Ferrari's Schumacher to a hefty 25 points at the halfway point in the 18-race Formula One season.

Starting from pole position for the fifth race in a row, Alonso was as dominant as ever and would have had an even bigger championship lead had Schumacher not got past McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen in the closing stages.

The Finn, last year's race winner, finished third. Alonso's victory was the 14th of his career, making him the second most successful current driver after seven times champion Schumacher, his first in North America and took his run of podium finishes to 15 in a row.

"It's fantastic for me," he told reporters after appearing on the Montreal podium for the first time.

"After the last three years having opportunities to win (in Canada) and always having mistakes this is one race we should have had in opening years and now we have it."

The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve has not been kind to Alonso in the past and his uncharacteristic error last year, when he hit the concrete wall at the exit of the final chicane while leading, was his last retirement from a race.

There were no such mistakes this time. On a blistering hot afternoon, Alonso kept his cool despite some added heat from Raikkonen in the early stages.

The Finn kept the pressure on by blasting past Alonso's Italian team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella at the start to take second place.

Raikkonen tried to force his way past after 12 laps but failed and, after leading when Alonso went in first for his opening pitstop, lost time when his own pit crew struggled to replace a rear tyre.

The Spaniard saw his advantage steadily increase when the Finn ran wide on lap 46 and then stalled at his second stop. With a more than 40-second lead, Alonso was cruising until BMW Sauber's hometown favourite Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 world champion and son of Gilles, slammed into the wall with 11 laps to go and brought out the pace car.

"The race was quite difficult, you can't do any mistakes," said Alonso, whose victory was also French tyre partner Michelin's 100th in Formula One.

On the restart, the Spaniard reasserted his authority by pulling away and take the chequered flag 2.1 seconds clear of Schumacher.

Fisichella was fourth, despite a drive-through penalty for jumping the start, with Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa fifth. Italian Jarno Trulli took his first points of the season, and first in 13 races, with sixth place for Toyota after running as high as third early on.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was seventh and Red Bull's David Coulthard took the final point after starting at the back of the grid due to an unscheduled engine change.

"Thanks to the safety car everything got together," said Schumacher.

"It's just a shame there were not 10 laps left that would have made it more entertaining.

"But we kept the damage as small as possible. We go from there," added the 37-year-old.