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Ferrari under threat?
The 5-year dominance by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari looks to be under threat.
Fernando Alonso has rescued Formula One from five years of dominance by Michael Schumacher and Ferrari.
The Spaniard captured his third straight checkered flag in last weekend's San Marino Grand Prix at Imola by holding off Schumacher in a wheel-to-wheel duel over the final 12 laps.
The victory - in what was hailed as the greatest Formula One race in more than a decade - gave the Spaniard twice as many points as any other driver this season, and kept Schumacher winless after the opening four races for the first time in eight seasons.
Alonso won his first two races this season - in Malaysia and Bahrain - in attacking fashion. His latest win showed he can defend just as well as he attacks, a rare trait for a 23-year-old driver.
Schumacher started 13th and passed 11 other drivers - including a cunning overtake of third-place finisher Jenson Button - with the fastest car in the field.
But Alonso would not move over for the seven-time world champion on Ferrari's home track.
Giancarlo Minardi, who first hired Alonso five years ago, was one of the few on hand who believed Alonso was up to the task.
"When Schumacher caught up to the leaders, everyone around me said, `That's it, the race is his,'" Minardi said. "But I was certain he wouldn't pull it off. I know Fernando well. He had a tough time with his speed, but he's always been great at breaking.
"Michael was much quicker than me," said Alonso, whose engine was on its second full race. "I knew that my only possibility was, first, not to catch the people in front of me and, second, in the corners where he had the opportunity (to pass) to brake a little bit more in the corner before and have better traction than him. I was playing this game at every corner."
It was an epic battle of the type Formula One hadn't seen since Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell went wheel-to-wheel at Monaco in 1992.
"It was one of the best races I can remember, and I've been in Formula One for 16 years," said Renault director Flavio Briatore. "(Schumacher) had a much faster car than ours, but Fernando was great, he used a great defensive tactic."
Alonso already has an 18-point lead atop the standings, and the next race is his home Spanish GP in Barcelona on May 8.
Alonso became the youngest winner of the old F3000 series by winning in Belgium at 19. He was also the youngest driver to take pole position at a Formula One race in Malaysia in 2003 at 21, then won the Hungarian GP later the same season, 26 days after his 22nd birthday.
"Age is a wheel that turns round, and now it's his turn.
