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Ferrari search for success
Ferrai's technical problems put them behind McLaren-Mercedes in Monaco. Michael Schumacher's and Rubens Barrichello finished in top eight slot.
There was a time when Michael Schumacher finishing ahead of teammate Rubens Barrichello meant 1-2 for Ferrari.
On Sunday, it was seventh and eighth and Ferrari was content at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen won his second Formula One race in a row, dominating from the pole to the checkered flag like Ferrari did last year when the team enjoyed eight 1-2 finishes and won 15 of 18 races.
Schumacher's and Barrichello's top eight results on Sunday meant they scored points in the same race for the first time this season. Seven-time world champion Schumacher has finished just three of six races, and has two sevenths and a second.
He has not won since October, the seven-race winless streak his longest at Ferrari since joining the team in 1996. Monaco was typical of Ferrari's season.
"Everything that could go wrong seemed to go wrong at the beginning," Schumacher said. "I got stuck behind the Minardi that blocked the track and I had to change the nose on the car. Given everything that happened I have to be reasonably happy with my two points."
Barrichello also had problems.
"All sorts of things happened in this race. My car stalled in the pits, unfortunately, which cost me a lot of time," he said. He was also caught for speeding in the pit lane, and was given a drive through penalty which cost him more time.
Those problems put them far behind Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes on the winding street circuit, the most glamorous venue in F1. Nick Heidfeld was second, and Mark Webber third, both in a Williams-BMW. Heidfeld was 13.8 seconds behind, and Webber 18.4 seconds off Raikkonen's pace. Fernando Alonso was fourth, his first time out of the top three this season.
There were no position changes over the first 23 laps among the top 15 cars.
Then the race began to turn sour for Schumacher. He lost a front wing when he hit David Coulthard's Red Bull after Christijan Albers' Minardi ran into the wall coming down the hill from the Casino. The others behind came to a complete stop, which brought out the safety car for four laps.
The gap between cars narrowed but when racing returned to full speed, Raikkonen stayed out longer after missing a pit stop. "We decided to stay out because we had many laps to go and I thought we would be able to pull enough of a lead before my pit stop," Raikkonen said.
Raikkonen built the margin to 34.7 seconds before he went in for fuel on the 42nd lap. He came out ahead by more than 15 seconds with 36 laps to go, and held on for his fourth career victory. Behind him, Alonso had tire problems and saw the chance of a podium finish disappear.
"In the last 20 laps things became really difficult," Alonso said. "I did all I could to keep the Williams behind me. The rear tires were in poor condition and they could brake much later into the chicane."
Heidfeld moved past a slowing Alonso with six laps to go, and Webber moved into third with three to go, both with daring moves. Alonso still leads the driver standings with 49 points. Raikkonen moved to second on 27 _ 20 from the last two races. After last year's Monaco GP, Schumacher had 50 points. Now he has 12.
The next race is on Sunday with the European Grand Prix at the Nuerburgring in Germany.
