2005 Japanese Grand Prix

Japan  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 Toyota
Time 1:46.106
Fastest lap
Driver Finland Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:31.540 on lap 44 (lap record)
Podium
First McLaren-Mercedes
Second Renault
Third Renault

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

Race

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

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings
Pos Driver Points
1 Spain Fernando Alonso 123
2 Finland Kimi Räikkönen 104
3 Germany Michael Schumacher 62
4 Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya 60
5 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella 53

Constructors' Championship standings
Pos Constructor Points
1 France Renault 176
2 United Kingdom McLaren-Mercedes 174
3 Italy Ferrari 100
4 Japan Toyota 82
5 United Kingdom Williams-BMW 64

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.
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

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

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