2005 Japanese Grand Prix

  2005 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 18 of 19 in the 2005 Formula One season
Date	9 October 2005
Official name	XXXI Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location	Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	5.807 km (3.608 mi)
Distance	53 laps, 307.771 km (191.224 mi)
Weather	Partially cloudy and dry with temperatures reaching up to 25 °C (77 °F)[1]
Attendance	155,000 (Sunday)
Pole position
Driver	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota
Time	1:46.106
Fastest lap
Driver	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Time	1:31.540 on lap 44 (lap record)
Podium
First	Kimi Räikkönen	McLaren-Mercedes
Second	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault
Third	Fernando Alonso	Renault
Lap leaders

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 9 October 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 marked Ralf Schumacher's sixth and last pole position (and Toyota's second).

Report

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was the eighteenth race of the 2005 Formula One season. A wet qualifying led Toyota's Ralf Schumacher to qualify on pole, which would be the last pole position of his career. Meanwhile, the typical frontrunners qualified further down the grid.

The race started off with Ralf Schumacher leading and Fisichella getting ahead of Button while Takuma Sato and Rubens Barrichello went off the track and collided resulting in the Brazilian suffering a left rear puncture. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and both McLaren drivers were making quick progress through the field. Towards the end of lap 1, 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, who pushed him off, resulting in a 25 sec penalty at the end of the race for the Canadian. Montoya's crash affected the Constructors' Championship as it meant that only Räikkönen could score points for McLaren.

After the safety car, the remaining favourites that had started from the back continued to make progress. Alonso tried to pass Christian Klien into the final chicane but went off, coming back to the track ahead of him. He gave the position back only to repass Klien back immediately by getting back into his slipstream. Race stewards came on to the radio telling the Renault team to let Klien back past again, so Alonso did. By this time he was four and a half seconds behind Michael Schumacher, but he closed that gap with ease, while Räikkönen got right behind them too.

In the first round of pitstops, Ralf Schumacher pitted very early and went down to eighth position while Giancarlo Fisichella took a comfortable lead. Well behind Fisichella, Alonso and Räikkönen were putting pressure on Michael Schumacher. Alonso, with the lightest car of the trio, went around the outside of Schumacher through 130R corner, but needed to pit briefly after making the pass. Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen continued scrapping for a couple more laps before their pitstops, both of them rejoining the track ahead of Coulthard and Alonso. Laps later Räikkönen passed Schumacher and closed in on Button and Webber. Alonso passed Schumacher for the second time and by this point he started to close in on Räikkönen, who was stuck behind Webber and Button. Fisichella still looked favourite to win the grand prix, as he was 20 seconds ahead of the chasing pack. Alonso, running lighter again, needed to pit earlier than the rest of this pack. Fisichella pitted next and rejoined right behind Button, Webber and Räikkönen.

Button and Webber pitted, Webber got out ahead of Button and they both got out ahead of Fernando Alonso. Räikkönen, finally with a clear track ahead, set a series of fastest laps, the best being a 1:31.540, and then 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 then passed Webber for third. Up the road, Räikkönen was now right on the tail of race leader Fisichella. With 3 laps to go, Fisichella went defensive under braking at the Casio Triangle, which allowed Räikkönen to get a tow on the pit straight. Fisichella defended but the story repeated next lap, and this time Räikkönen was able to get past around the outside of turn 1 of the final lap.

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
Source:[2]

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 damage	19
Ret	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Accident	18
DSQ	4	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	52	Disqualified	5
Source:[3]

Championship 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.

References

1. Weather info for the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix at Weather Underground
2. "2005 FORMULA 1™ Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
3. "2005 FORMULA 1™ Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix - Race". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 17 January 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.

Coordinates: 34°50′35″N 136°32′26″E / 34.84306°N 136.54056°E