By Karl King
April 23 2006

Michael Schumacher took the win in front of the team's home crowd at Imola today, with Fernando Alonso closely following in second. Juan Pablo Montoya snatched the final podium position for McLaren, which teamed with Kimi's fifth place, equals ten points for McLaren.

Michael Schumacher managed to fend of a determined fight from Alonso, something which McLaren boss Ron Dennis admitted to the ITV team that he was happy about. He joked that you would not normally hear him happy about Ferrari winning, but the Briton does not want Fernando Alonso and Reanult to run away with both titles too early.

Juan Pablo Montoya grabbed the final podium position after problems for Jenson Button in two pitstops, first with a wheel nut and in the second where the lollipop rose early. Button lost a bundle of time waiting in the pit lane, and subsequently, the podium.

Kimi Raikkonen was in sniffing distance of fourth place, crossing the line just half a second behind Felipe Massa. The team are currently second in the constructors championship, three points safe of Ferrari, but 18 points behind the early runaways Renault.

Rounding out the points scoring positions were Mark Webber, the unlucky Jenson Button, and Gianacarlo Fisichella taking the final point, putting the Italian equal in the Drivers' with Montoya.

We look forward to the European GP at the Nurburgring in two weeks time, where Ron Dennis says the team will run updated Mercedes engines.

Full results here.