Kimi Raikkonen sensationally scored his seventh win of the season when he snatched victory from Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap of the 53 lap Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on Sunday. The Finn swooped around the outside of the Italian as they entered Suzuka’s first corner and having started 17th on the grid, Raikkonen led home a Renault 1-2 to win by 1.633s. World Champion Fernando Alonso was third to give Renault back the lead in the Constructors’ Championship. Michael Schumacher scored two points to retain his third place in the Drivers’ series, securing Ferrari’s similar placing in the Constructors’ series, while Rubens Barrichello finished 12th after a first lap tangle with Takuma Sato resulted in an extra pit stop for a punctured tyre.

After a rain-affected qualifying, several strong drivers were starting at the back of the field, including Michael Schumacher (14th on the grid), Fernando Alonso (16th) and Raikkonen and McLaren teammate Juan Pablo Montoya on row nine, so there was bound to be an interesting race. Poleman Ralf Schumacher took off into an immediate lead from Fisichella, then Jenson Button, a fast-starting David Coulthard, Mark Webber and Christian Klien. Michael Schumacher was already up to seventh, Alonso eighth and Raikkonen 12th. But Barrichello and Sato went off briefly at the first corner, and Montoya crashed at the end of lap one after an incident with Villeneuve, which brought out the safety car for six laps. When the safety car went in, Ralf Schumacher eased away at the front but his first pit stop on lap 13 revealed a three stop strategy. Fisichella then took over, easing away from Button and they would stop two laps apart on laps 20 and 22.

Behind Button, Coulthard held an early fourth place from Webber, before Michael who had overtaken Christian Klien, but then came under pressure from Alonso and Raikkonen. The Spaniard overtook on lap 20 just before he made his first pit stop and both Michael and Raikkonen pitted on lap 26, rejoining in the same order as previously. By lap 29, Ralf Schumacher had just made his second stop, so Fisichella led by 12s from Button pushed by Webber. Then came the re-formed group of Michael, and then Raikkonen now ahead of Alonso. But Raikkonen overtook Michael on lap 30 going into the first corner, and Alonso did the same three laps later. Raikkonen caught Button and Webber, and Alonso was about to do the same thing when he made his second stop on lap 36.

Fisichella pitted from a 19s lead on lap 38 and on lap 41, Button and Webber pitted, with the Williams driver emerging ahead of the BAR. Michael came in on lap 42 but Raikkonen stayed out until lap 45. When he came out of the pits, he was 5.4s behind Fisichella – third placed Webber was just ahead of Alonso. The new World Champion squeezed past the Williams driver on lap 49 by which time Fisichella’s lead over Raikkonen was just 1.8s. In the final laps, that lead disappeared altogether and on the last lap, Raikkonen swooped around Fisichella to score a brilliant win. The Renault pair finished second and third, while Webber scored a strong fourth ahead of Button in fifth. Coulthard was sixth from Michael Schumacher in seventh, who was comfortably ahead of his brother in eighth place.

Jean Todt: “This result lived up to our admittedly un-ambitious expectations. Michael had to dig deep into his reserves of talent to get the Ferrari-Bridgestone package home in seventh place.
 

"Rubens’ chance of finishing in the points was compromised by the accident at the first corner. The subsequent Safety Car period offered the possibility of regaining some ground, but nothing much came out of it. Today’s result confirms us in third place in the Constructors’ championship behind the two teams which, running on the rival tyre to Bridgestone, have dominated the season. Objectively, this was the best we could do. Two points is not much, but all the same, we dedicate them to one of our team, Ivan Petterlini, who tragically died last Sunday. These last few days, all of us have been thinking of him. In a few days, we will be back on track in Shanghai for the final race of the year. The only pleasure we can derive from that is that this negative season is coming to an end. Then, along with Bridgestone, we will be able to turn our full attention to preparing for 2006.”

Michael Schumacher: “The best thing to come out of today is that we have secured third place in this year’s Constructors’ championship. Considering the performance of our package this season and the tough time we have had, this is not such a bad result. Especially, when you consider that, in the ten years I have been with Ferrari, this will have been our worst season. As for the race, I was disappointed that, unlike in Brazil, I was unable to keep pace with the Renaults. Sure, it is fun to have a good fight on the track, but it would have been better if I had been more competitive. At my second stop, we had to make some adjustments to the car, which cost us time and lost me a place. All in all, going to Shanghai two points ahead of Montoya is nice but unexpected.”

Rubens Barrichello: “This was a tough race for me, ruined by what happened on the opening lap. I was trying really hard to overtake Villeneuve around the outside and everything was going okay. I could not close the door too much on Jacques. I had Sato in my sight so I could see him going off the track. With him in front of me as he went off the track, I found myself with no downforce and also ended up in the gravel. Then I had to come in as my left rear tyre was punctured. With the Safety Car on track, we changed strategy, going for a single refuelling stop, but I was too far back and there was not much I could do.”

Ross Brawn: “Rubens got caught up in the mess at the beginning, which made his race very difficult from then on. Michael made a great start and I think we had a very good strategy today. But the performance of the package just faded in the middle of the race and became difficult to deal with. This then put us in a defensive position from about lap 20 onwards, which meant we had to try and protect our position. At the second pit stop, we had to make some adjustments to the car which meant we lost a place to Coulthard. We were not as fast as the front runners, but nevertheless we did a good job today, within the limits of our performance at the moment.”

Michael Schumacher: 7th +33.879 53 laps chassis 249; Rubens Barrichello: 12th +1.00.633 53 laps chassis 248; Temperatures: air 28 °C, track 38 °C