2005 Japanese Grand Prix

2005 Japanese Grand Prix
Race details
	Race 18 of 19 in the 2005 Formula One season
	;
Date	October 9, 2005
Official name	XXXI Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility ; 5.807 km (3.608 mi)
Distance	53 laps, 307.771 km (191.224 mi)
Weather	Partially cloudy, dry
Pole position
Time	1:46.106
Fastest lap
Time	1:31.540 on lap 44
Podium

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 9, 2005 at the Suzuka Circuit. McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen won the race after starting from 17th place and overtaking race leader Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap. This race also marks Ralf Schumacher's 6th and last pole position (and Toyota's 2nd).

Report[]

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was the eighteenth race of the 2005 Formula One season. After the track was subject to heavy rain, the familiar faces found themselves down the order, while Ralf Schumacher scored an unlikely pole; which would be the final such occurrence of his career, and would ultimately be Toyota's last until 2009. But by Sunday, the weather was warm, sunny, a nice fast track - a good track for the McLarens to excel. But with their drivers stranded well down the order (17th and 18th) a win seemed to be a difficult thing.

The race started off with Ralf Schumacher leading and Fisichella getting ahead of Button, meanwhile Takuma Sato and Rubens Barrichello went off the track and collided resulting in the Brazilian suffering a left rear puncture. Alonso was flying through the field. He was already up to eighth at the end of the first lap while Räikkönen was passed by many cars due to him going off track at the Casio triangle. Then a safety car was deployed when Juan Montoya's car went off track at the beginning of the pit straight. He tried to go around the outside of Villeneuve, but Villeneuve pushed Montoya off, resulting in a 25 sec penalty at the end of the race for the Canadian. Montoya's crash had an impact on the Constructors' Championship as it meant that only Räikkönen could score points for McLaren.

After the safety car, Alonso went around the outside of Christian Klien and cut the chicane. He gave the position back and then the FIA came on to the radio telling the Renault team to let Klien back past, so Alonso did. Then the FIA came to Renault again and said that he had to let Klien through again, so Alonso had to pass Klien for a third time. By this time he was four and a half seconds behind Michael Schumacher and Räikkönen had passed Klien.

After the first pitstops Ralf Schumacher went down to eighth position and Giancarlo Fisichella took a comfortable lead. Well behind Fisichella, Alonso and Räikkönen were closing on Michael Schumacher. Alonso went around the outside of Schumacher through 130R corner, the following lap he set a fastest lap time of 1:31.599 before his pitstop along with Button. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen continued scrapping for a couple more laps before their pitstops, both of them rejoined ahead of Coulthard and Alonso. Laps later Räikkönen passed Schumacher and closed in on Button and Webber but couldn't get past. Alonso passed Schumacher for the second time and by this point he started to close on Räikkönen who was stuck behind Webber. At this point Fisichella looked favourite to win the grand prix, he was 20 seconds ahead. Alonso pitted early as a planned stop and not to be held up behind Jenson Button and Mark Webber. Fisichella then pitted and rejoined behind Button, Webber and Räikkönen and fell back quite quickly doing slow laps. Button and Webber pitted, Webber got out ahead of Button and they both got out ahead of Fernando Alonso. Räikkönen then set the fastest lap of the race on 1:31.540 and pitted. By then he was only 5 seconds behind Fisichella and was closing on the Renault. Meanwhile Alonso had got past Button who was slipping back to Coulthard and Michael Schumacher. Alonso got past Webber for third and was now 20 seconds behind his teammate and Räikkönen was now right on the tail of Fisichella. Fisichella got to a Minardi backmarker who blocked him and Räikkönen was the net winner getting past. Fisichella went defensive in the last two laps at the Casio Triangle which affected his exit and Räikkönen got a tow on the pit straight. The first time Fisichella defended and the second time Räikkönen was able to go past. Räikkönen won the race, taking his final victory for McLaren ahead of Fisichella, Alonso, Webber, Button, Coulthard, Michael Schumacher, and Ralf Schumacher. Post-race saw the disqualification of Takuma Sato after an earlier collision with Jarno Trulli.

Classification[]

Qualifying[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Lap	Gap
1	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:46.106	—
2	3	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	1:46.141	+0.035
3	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:46.276	+0.170
4	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Cosworth	1:46.464	+0.358
5	4	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	1:46.841	+0.735
6	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	1:46.892	+0.786
7	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	1:47.233	+1.127
8	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	1:47.440	+1.334
9	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	1:48.248	+2.142
10	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	1:48.278	+2.172
11	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan-Toyota	1:48.718	+2.612
12	8	Antônio Pizzonia	Williams-BMW	1:48.898	+2.792
13	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi-Cosworth	1:50.843	+4.737
14	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	1:52.676	+6.570
15	20	Robert Doornbos	Minardi-Cosworth	1:52.894	+6.788
16	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	1:54.667	+8.561
17	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	2:02.309	+16.203
18	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	no time
19	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	no time
20	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	no time

Race[]

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	9	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes	53	1:29:02.212	17	10
2	6	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	53	+1.633	3	8
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	53	+17.456	16	6
4	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	53	+22.274	7	5
5	3	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	53	+29.507	2	4
6	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	53	+31.601	6	3
7	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	53	+33.879	14	2
8	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	53	+49.548	1	1
9	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Cosworth	53	+51.925	4
10	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	53	+57.509	10
11	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	53	+1:00.633	9
12	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	53	+1:23.221	8
13	18	Tiago Monteiro	Jordan-Toyota	52	+1 Lap	20
14	20	Robert Doornbos	Minardi-Cosworth	51	+2 Laps	15
15	19	Narain Karthikeyan	Jordan-Toyota	51	+2 Laps	11
16	21	Christijan Albers	Minardi-Cosworth	49	+4 Laps	13
Ret	8	Antônio Pizzonia	Williams-BMW	9	Spun off	12
Ret	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	9	Collision	19
Ret	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Accident	18
DSQ	4	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	52	Disqualified	5

Standings after the race[]

Bold text indicates who still has a theoretical chance of becoming World Champion.

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Fernando Alonso	123
2	Kimi Räikkönen	104
3	Michael Schumacher	62
4	Juan Pablo Montoya	60
5	Giancarlo Fisichella	53

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos	Constructor	Points
1	Renault	176
2	McLaren-Mercedes	174
3	Ferrari	100
4	Toyota	82
5	Williams-BMW	64

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

Previous race: 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix	FIA Formula One World Championship 2005 season	Next race: 2005 Chinese Grand Prix
Previous race: 2004 Japanese Grand Prix	Japanese Grand Prix	Next race: 2006 Japanese Grand Prix

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