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 he 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.
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