FORMULA ONE/European Grand Prix Standings: Reinvented, reinvigorated, the McLaren express, driven with icy calm by Kimi Raikkonen, was spearing to a third victory in a row.

Midway through the European Grand Prix, the Finn had swatted away a challenge from pole-winner Nick Heidfeld, kept Renault's Fernando Alonso at bay and was looking at giving engine suppliers a reason to celebrate on home turf at the Nurburgring. Then the wheels began to come off. Literally.

Raikkonen began to make mistakes, began to miss his braking points. A locked front right, a run wide, a puff of white hot smoke from his tyres. The closest challenger to Alonso's championship lead was in trouble. The Spaniard, smelling blood, began to close in. The gap shortened from 15 seconds to seven to four with five laps to go, a half second gained on the next tour, and as a closer inspection of Raikkonen's McLaren MP4/20 revealed a frightening vibration, Alonso closed to two seconds.

There appeared to be enough time for the Finn. A single lap to complete but as he roared across the start/finish line to start his final lap, his crumbling suspension let go, exploding. Alonso, blasted through smoke and debris and rounded turn one in the lead.

Raikkonen was stranded against the tyre wall, deep in the gravel trap, his right-front wheel dangling only by the slender tether designed to hold it in place in the event of disaster. On the pit wall, McLaren chief Ron Dennis turned away in disgust.

It had been all Raikkonen until then. Williams's Nick Heidfeld had taken pole position in the reworked single-session qualifying format, but the deep suspicion was he and team-mate Mark Webber, starting third, were fuelled for a short first stint, an almost-admission by the BMW-powered team all they could hope for was to hang on to Raikkonen's coat-tails.

And they did so. Heidfeld lost out to the Finn at the start as Webber was taken out by McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya, an incident that also hampered Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, BAR's Takuma Sato and Toyota's Ralf Schumacher, but as Raikkonen made his getaway, the Williams man clung on grimly.

That all changed on lap 12 as Heidfeld made his first stop. It was to be the first of three for the German, a brave strategy that allowed him to keep pace with the pacesetters.

Heidfeld's detour to the pits allowed David Coulthard to claim second, the Scot having profited from the first-corner chaos to rise from 12th place on the grid. Behind him prowled Alonso. With Heidfeld removed from the winning equation and Coulthard battling for a place that was always in danger, it was shaping up to be a race between Raikkonen and Alonso.

For a while it looked like the Spaniard might succeed in a robust defence of his points cushion. If only he could eat into Raikkonen's lead in the laps between the Finn's second stop and his own, later, second visit to pit lane. He began the process in startling style, lapping almost eight-10ths of a second quicker than the, as yet, untroubled Finn.

But then, pushing too hard, Alonso erred on lap 46, running wide at the hairpin and losing more than five seconds. Team boss Flavio Briatore looked away in dismay. But Raikkonen was in trouble. The McLaren began to slow, Alonso pounced.

"I was happy with the second place but we were so quick and pushing McLaren and Kimi all the way and they eventually had a tyre failure," said Alonso afterwards. "We were very lucky today but also very quick."

The last-lap incident allowed Heidfeld to rise to second, with Rubens Barrichello claiming third. Coulthard, despite a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, took fourth. Michael Schumacher had to settle for fifth after being dropped down the order from his 10th-place start after he had to take evasive action during the first-corner incident.

Nurburgring, Germany 53 Laps

1 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 1hour 31min 46.648secs

2 N Heidfeld (Ger) Williams 1:32:02.653

3 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:32:04.653

4 D Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 1:32:17.653

5 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:32:36.652

6 G Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:32:37.657

7 J Montoya (Col) McLaren Mercedes 1:32:44.649

8 J Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:32:57.648

9 V Liuzzi (Ita) Red Bull at 71.5secs, 10 J Button (Brit) Honda at 95.7 secs, 11 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes at 1 lap, 12 T Sato (Jpn) BAR Honda at 1 lap, 13 J Villeneuve (Can) S Petronas at 1 lap, 14 F Massa (Bra) S Petronas at 1 lap, 15 T Monteiro (Por) Jordan Toyota at 1 lap, 16 N Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan Toyota at 1 lap, 17 C Albers (Ned) Minardi at 2 laps, 18 P Friesacher (Ger) M Cosworth at 3 laps DNF: 19 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota, 20 M Webber (Aus) Williams BMW

Drivers' Championship

1 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 59

2 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren Mercedes 27

3 J Trulli (Ita) Toyota 27

4 N Heidfeld (Ger) Williams BMW 25

5 M Webber (Aus) Williams BMW 18

6 G Fisichella (Ita) Renault 17

7 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 17

8 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 16, 9 J Montoya (Col) McLaren Mercedes 16, 10 R Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 15, 11 D Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 15, 12 A Wurz (Aut) McLaren Mercedes 6, 13 J Villeneuve (Can) Sauber Petronas 5, 14 P de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren Mercedes 4, 15 C Klien (Aut) Red Bull 3, 16 F Massa (Bra) Sauber Petronas 2, 17 V Liuzzi (Ita) Red Bull 1

Manufacturers' Championship

1 Renault 76

2 McLaren Mercedes 53

3 Toyota 44

4 Williams BMW 43

5 Ferrari 31

6 Red Bull 19

7 Sauber Petronas 7