Renault Hit with Double Retirement

Alonso's retirement was his first of the season and handed McLaren rival Kimi Raikkonen a golden chance to slash the Spaniard's commanding title lead.

The 23-year-old started the eighth round of the 19 race Championship with a 32 point lead over Raikkonen and Italian Jarno Trulli in the standings as the only driver to have finished every race in the points.

He had led for six laps after Italian Fisichella slowed and retired on lap 33.

The Roman's run of bad luck struck again after he had been in front for almost half the race.

Clearly frustrated at a circuit that has favoured him in the past, Fisichella got out of the car and tossed his gloves to the floor as he strode into the garage.

Until then, he had done everything right.

Starting on the second row of the grid in fourth place, he scythed past Ferrari's World Champion Michael Schumacher and BAR's pole sitter Jenson Button to take the lead at the first corner as Alonso came through on the other side.

Fisichella, winner of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, has now retired from half the season's races - while Alonso has won four.

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore was philosophical about the double blow, saying: "It's Formula One, one bad day it happens, it happens to somebody else, it happesn to us, it's part of the game...

"What is very important is that the car was very competitive, both drivers were very competitive...we have plenty of time to recover from this drama," the Italian told ITV.