2005 Japanese Grand Prix

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on October 9, 2005 at the Suzuka Circuit.

Report

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix was the eighteenth and penultimate 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. 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.

By the end of lap one indeed McLaren had hit trouble, with Juan Pablo Montoya retired and Räikkönen moving through the order, but slowly. Meanwhile, Alonso came from 16th to 10th in one lap.

After the first pitstops Ralf Schumacher went down to eighth position, and Giancarlo Fisichella took a comfortable lead. But, well behind Fisichella, Alonso and Räikkönen were charging through the field at a tremendous rate, but they were well down on Fisichella, so they were surely never going to be a threat.

But, by the end of the race, the stunning pace of Alonso and Räikkönen had become too much. Alonso moved up from a 16th position grid slot to third. On the last lap, Räikkönen pulled an impressive overtaking move on Fisichella on the main straight into the first corner, and came from 17th on the grid to take a memorable win.

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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	+1.6	3	8
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	53	+17.4	16	6
4	7	Mark Webber	Williams-BMW	53	+22.2	7	5
5	3	Jenson Button	BAR-Honda	53	+29.5	2	4
6	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Cosworth	53	+31.6	6	3
7	1	Michael Schumacher	Ferrari	53	+33.8	14	2
8	17	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	53	+49.5	1	1
9	15	Christian Klien	Red Bull-Cosworth	53	+51.9	4
10	12	Felipe Massa	Sauber-Petronas	53	+57.5	10
11	2	Rubens Barrichello	Ferrari	53	+1:00.6	9
12	11	Jacques Villeneuve	Sauber-Petronas	53	+1:23.2	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	Accident	12
Ret	16	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	9	Accident	19
Ret	10	Juan Pablo Montoya	McLaren-Mercedes	0	Accident	18
DSQ	4	Takuma Sato	BAR-Honda	52	Disqualified	5

Notes

• Lap Leaders: Ralf Schumacher 1-12 (12); Giancarlo Fisichella 13-20, 27-38, 46-52 (27); Jenson Button 21-22, 39-40 (4); David Coulthard 23 (1); Michael Schumacher 24-26 (3); Kimi Räikkönen 41-45, 53 (6)
• This was Kimi Räikkönen's last F1 victory with the McLaren team.
• This was McLaren's last F1 victory until 2007.
• Takuma Sato disqualified for causing the collision with Jarno Trulli.
• 25 seconds added to Jacques Villeneuve's race time for forcing Juan Pablo Montoya off the track.
• This was Ralf Schumacher's last pole position.