Championship leader Fernando Alonso won the Bahrain Grand Prix yesterday to hand Renault their third win in three races while Ferrari failed to score a point.
The 23-year-old Spaniard, triumphant for the second race in a row, was unstoppable as Ferrari's hopes of winning on their new car's Formula One debut evaporated in the shimmering desert heat.
Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher, who had raised Ferrari's hopes by qualifying on the front row alongside pole man Alonso, retired after 12 laps.
Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello was ninth. Italian Jarno Trulli crossed the line 13.4 seconds behind Alonso to take Toyota's second top three finish in succession, with Finland's Kimi Raikkonen following for McLaren's first podium of the season in third place.
As a mark of respect to Pope John Paul, who died on Saturday, none of the drivers sprayed the sparkling fruit juice that replaces champagne at the race in Islamic Bahrain. Ferrari also raced with blackened nose cones (see opposite page).
"This was probably the hottest race I ever did," said Alonso. "The car was again perfect, especially after the first pitstop. We found again that our strong point is the long runs."
"This is now three consecutive races that I have nothing to say, no problems at all not only in the race but the whole weekend."
Until his departure, Schumacher had hounded Alonso but his exit took the pressure off the Spaniard in a race full of incident and overtaking.
"I think I picked up debris on the circuit following Fernando which may have caused some radiator to be broken," he told television reporters.
"We were in good shape with the car. I'm quite confident. I can't blame anyone. That would be mistaken. I think our strategy was absolutely the right strategy. It was just a piece of something that got into the car."
The failure ended a streak for Ferrari, whose new car has won on its debut in every year since 1998. They had rushed it into service, after starting the season with last year's model, in a vain bid to halt Renault's rise.
Germany's Ralf Schumacher was fourth for Toyota to enable the Japanese team to close on Renault, who failed to score points with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella.
Alonso leads the championship with 26 points to Trulli's 16, thereby ensuring that he will still be championship leader at his home race in Spain after Imola on April 24.
Michael Schumacher, winner of 13 of the 18 races in 2004, has just two points after two retirements in three races - his worst start to a championship.
Renault, celebrating their 100th win as an engine maker, lead the constructors' standing with 36 points to Toyota's 25 and McLaren's 19. Ferrari, champions for the past six years, are sixth with just 10.
Pedro de la Rosa, standing in for injured Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, was fifth for McLaren after overtaking Australian Mark Webber's Williams two laps from the chequered flag. Webber had run third before he spun off.
De la Rosa's aggressive performance provided one of the highlights of the race and the Spaniard also registered the fastest lap.
Ferrari's woes were compounded five laps from the finish when Felipe Massa, in a Ferrari-powered Sauber, passed Rubens Barrichello for seventh place.
Barrichello was then lapped by Alonso and passed by Red Bull's David Coulthard on the last lap - leaving both Ferrari drivers out of the points for the first time this year.
BAR's season continued in the doldrums, with neither Briton Jenson Button nor Japan's Takuma Sato finishing for the third race in a row.
Red Bull's hopes of a third successive double points scoring finish ended when Christian Klien was stranded on the grid and failed to start.