Fernando Alonso maintained his comfortable Formula One world championship lead with a stirring drive to second place in the fourth race of the year, the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.

Starting fifth, the Spaniard gained a place on the opening lap and moved up to second after the first round of pit stops. He then stepped up to challenge leader Michael Schumacher in a thrilling repeat of their 2005 duel – but this time with Alonso playing the role of challenger rather than defender.

Late in the race, the Renault driver ran slightly wide at Turn Six and finally settled down to consolidate his position. After four races this season he has yet to finish lower than second and leads Schumacher by 15 points in the title chase.

Although this was Michelin's first F1 defeat of the season, the company's engineers derived a great deal of satisfaction from their tyres' technical performance because Alonso was clearly the quickest driver on the circuit. He set the race's fastest lap during his pursuit of pole position qualifier Schumacher and at one point was reducing the German's advantage by 1.5s per lap. Catching at Imola is one thing, however, and passing quite another: although he spent the entire second half of the race on Schumacher's tail, there was simply no way through.

Juan Pablo Montoya drove a strong race from seventh on the grid to finish third – his first podium finish of the season – while Kimi Räikkönen, Jenson Button and Giancarlo Fisichella also scored points on Michelin tyres. For Honda, though, the race was a story of hope unfulfilled. Button and team-mate Rubens Barrichello qualified second and third, but their three-stop strategy failed to pay off and they slipped down the order during the afternoon. Button lost additional time during his second stop, when he tried to rejoin the race with his fuel rig still attached – he had to sit stationary for several seconds while his team rectified the situation. Barrichello eventually finished 10th.

BMW team-mates Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld were 12th and 13th, just ahead of the Michelin-shod Toro Rossos of Vitantonio Liuzzi, who recovered from a spin early in the race, and Scott Speed. The Red Bulls of David Coulthard and Christian Klien were the only Michelin cars not to finish. The Scot retired with suspected driveshaft failure, after 47 laps, while Klien suffered a hydraulic problem after 40.

The race began with a Safety Car period after Dutchman Christijan Albers (MF1) was tipped into a spectacular series of rolls at Turn Six on the opening lap. He was not seriously hurt.