2005 Japanese Grand Prix

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2005 Japanese Grand Prix
Race 18 of 19 in the 2005 Formula One World Championship
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Suzuka circuit map--2005.svg
Race details
Date9 October 2005
Official name 2005 Formula 1 Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix
Location Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka, Mie, Japan
Course Permanent racing facility
Course length 5.807 km (3.608 miles)
Distance 53 laps, 307.573 km (191.117 miles)
Weather Partially cloudy and dry with temperatures reaching up to 25 °C (77 °F) [1]
Attendance 320,000 [2]
Pole position
Driver Toyota
Time 1:46.106
Fastest lap
Driver Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes
Time 1:31.540 on lap 44
Podium
First McLaren-Mercedes
Second Renault
Third Renault
Lap leaders
  • 2005 Japanese Grand Prix

The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix (officially known as the 2005 Formula One Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix) was a Formula One race which was held at Suzuka International Racing Course on 9 October 2005. It was the eighteenth and penultimate round of the 2005 Formula One World Championship, the thirty-first running of the Japanese Grand Prix and nineteenth to be held at Suzuka.

Contents

Kimi Räikkönen won the race after starting from seventeenth, overtaking long-time race leader Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap to win a race that saw many overtaking manoeuvres. Fisichella’s teammate Fernando Alonso completed the podium, having come through from sixteenth, including an overtake on Michael Schumacher around the outside of 130R corner. [3]

The race marked Ralf Schumacher’s sixth and final pole position in Formula One. [4]

This was also Räikkönen's last win until the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, his last win for McLaren and McLaren's last win until the 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix. This was the last time that a driver would win from 17th on the grid or lower until Max Verstappen at the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix, a gap of 19 years.

Background

Fernando Alonso was crowned world champion at the previous round in Brazil, but the battle for the Constructors’ Championship between McLaren-Mercedes and Renault continued at the penultimate round, with McLaren leading by two points. [5]

At a press conference before the Japanese Grand Prix, Honda announced the acquisition of all shares in BAR. [6] Toyota decided to bring the renewed TF105B to the last two races of the season.

Antônio Pizzonia, who was already at the wheel of Williams in the three previous Grands Prix, was confirmed as a replacement for the injured Nick Heidfeld for the last two races of the season as well. [7] One option to replace Heidfeld's in the last two races was test driver Nico Rosberg. The fact that two races are run on new tracks prevented this possibility. [8]

Practice

Teams that finished fifth or lower in the 2004 Constructors’ Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers participated on Friday, but did not compete in qualifying or the race. Of the six teams, only four had third drivers at Suzuka: McLaren (Pedro de la Rosa), Red Bull (Vitantonio Liuzzi), Toyota (Ricardo Zonta) and Jordan (Sakon Yamamoto).

Pedro de la Rosa was fastest in first free practice, completing 23 laps and finished more than half a second ahead of Ricardo Zonta, who was more than a second faster than Michael Schumacher in FP2. [9] [10] The weather took a turn for the worse on Saturday and had an effect on the amount of running in the final two practice sessions. Michael Schumacher ended up top of the timesheets in FP3, over two seconds quicker than Kimi Räikkönen, with Giancarlo Fisichella clocking the fastest time in final practice, edging out Narain Karthikeyan by 0.014s. [11] [12]

Qualifying

Qualifying was held on a wet track, with conditions later deteriorating, forcing some of the usual front runners to qualify near the back of the grid. Ralf Schumacher qualified on pole, edging out Jenson Button by 0.035s. Fisichella was third, with home favourite Takuma Sato in fifth. The end of qualifying saw the top finishers from the last race attempt to set a lap time. But by this point the conditions had worsened and Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya all qualifying in fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth places respectively. Montoya did not set a lap time. Jarno Trulli and Tiago Monteiro also failed to set a time.

Qualifying classification

PosNoDriverConstructorLapGapStart
117 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:46.1061
23 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:46.141+0.0352
36 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:46.276+0.1703
415 Flag of Austria.svg Christian Klien Red Bull-Cosworth 1:46.464+0.3584
54 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:46.841+0.7355
614 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth 1:46.892+0.7866
77 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1:47.233+1.1277
811 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 1:47.440+1.3348
92 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:48.248+2.1429
1012 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:48.278+2.17210
1119 Flag of India.svg Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 1:48.718+2.61211
128 Flag of Brazil.svg Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW 1:48.898+2.79212
1321 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth 1:50.843+4.73713
141 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:52.676+6.57014
1520 Flag of Monaco.svg Robert Doornbos Minardi-Cosworth 1:52.894+6.78815
165 Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Alonso Renault 1:54.667+8.56116
179 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 2:02.309+16.20317 1
1810 Flag of Colombia.svg Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes No time18
1916 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Toyota No time19
2018 Flag of Portugal.svg Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota No time20
Source: [13]
Notes

Race

Ralf Schumacher maintained the lead off the start, with Giancarlo Fisichella jumped Jenson Button and Red Bull's David Coulthard moved from sixth to eighth. But local hero Sato ran wide into the gravel at turn one and his right-front tyre was sideswiped by Rubens Barrichello. Both continued, but the left rear of Barrichello's Ferrari was punctured, leading to a pit stop at the end of lap one. Alonso made a flying start and was up to seventh by the time the field was completing the first lap. Raikkonen went straight on at the Casio Triangle chicane, before teammate Juan Pablo Montoya crashed heavily while coming onto the pit straight after trying to drive around the Sauber of Jacques Villeneuve, but the Canadian squeezed him and onto the gravel, making the Colombian the first retirement of the afternoon and severely damaging McLaren's Constructors' Championship hopes. The accident resulted in the safety car being deployed.

On lap 10, Sato attempted to overtake Trulli into the chicane, but never looked like pulling the move off and the resulting contact forced Trulli into retirement. Ralf was the first of the leaders to pit, coming in for the first of three stops at the end of lap 13. This counted him out of the running for the race victory, with Fisichella assuming the lead.

On lap 19, Alonso pulled off one of the most audacious overtaking manoeuvres with a pass around the outside of Michael Schumacher at the infamous 130R corner. Raikkonen had a sniff of passing the seven-time world champion into the very next turn, the Casio Triangle, but had to settle in behind the Ferrari. Alonso stopped first of the trio, but because he pitted for fuel before Michael and Raikkonen, he came back out behind the duo, with Raikkonen passing Michael on the pit straight on lap 29. On lap 32, Michael went deep into the chicane, giving Alonso the opportunity to pass again, which he did down the pit straight and swept into turn one ahead of the German.

Raikkonen made his final stop on lap 45, handing the lead back to Fisichella. But as he emerged from the pits, Raikkonen was about to go on a thrilling charge. Alonso had closed up to the back of the Williams-BMW of Mark Webber by the end of lap 49 and despite being forced onto the grass, the world champion was able to complete the overtake on the Australian and took third place. Raikkonen took 1.3 seconds out of Fisichella's lead on lap 49 and was now right on the rear-wing of the Italian. Raikkonen lined up the overtake going into the chicane, but Fisichella went defensive, leaving him vulnerable to an attack from Raikkonen, who was given all the motivation he needed to slingshot past the Renault into turn one to complete a brilliant recovery drive for his seventh win of the season.

Post-race

Jacques Villeneuve had 25 seconds added to his race time for causing Juan Pablo Montoya to crash out on the first lap, while Takuma Sato was disqualified from the final classification for his lap 10 collision with Jarno Trulli which caused the Italian to retire from the race.

Race classification

Pos.No.DriverConstructorTyreLapsTime/RetiredGridPoints
19 Flag of Finland.svg Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes M 531:29:02.2121710
26 Flag of Italy.svg Giancarlo Fisichella Renault M 53+1.63338
35 Flag of Spain.svg Fernando Alonso Renault M 53+17.456166
47 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Webber Williams-BMW M 53+22.27475
53 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Jenson Button BAR-Honda M 53+29.50724
614 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg David Coulthard Red Bull-Cosworth M 53+31.60163
71 Flag of Germany.svg Michael Schumacher Ferrari B 53+33.879142
817 Flag of Germany.svg Ralf Schumacher Toyota M 53+49.54811
915 Flag of Austria.svg Christian Klien Red Bull-Cosworth M 53+51.9254
1012 Flag of Brazil.svg Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas M 53+57.50910
112 Flag of Brazil.svg Rubens Barrichello Ferrari B 53+1:00.6339
1211 Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas M 53+1:23.221 2 8
1318 Flag of Portugal.svg Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota B 52+1 Lap20
1420 Flag of Monaco.svg Robert Doornbos Minardi-Cosworth B 51+2 Laps15
1519 Flag of India.svg Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota B 51+2 Laps11
1621 Flag of the Netherlands.svg Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth B 49+4 Laps13
Ret8 Flag of Brazil.svg Antônio Pizzonia Williams-BMW M 9Spun off12
Ret16 Flag of Italy.svg Jarno Trulli Toyota M 9Collision damagePL 1
Ret10 Flag of Colombia.svg Juan Pablo Montoya McLaren-Mercedes M 0Accident18
DSQ4 Flag of Japan.svg Takuma Sato BAR-Honda M 52Caused collision with Trulli 3 5
Sources: [14] [15]
Notes

Championship standings after the race

References

  1. Weather info for the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix at Weather Underground
  2. "Formula 1 Honda Japanese Grand Prix 2022 – Media Kit" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  3. Raikkonen steals Japanese GP win retrieved from BBC Sport, 9 October 2005
  4. Ralf charges to Japanese GP pole retrieved from BBC Sport, 8 October 2005
  5. Alonso clinches Formula One title retrieved from BBC Sport, 25 September 2005
  6. "Honda Acquires 100% of BAR". Autosport.com. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  7. "Pizzonia confirmed for Japan and China". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  8. "Pizzonia to Race for the Rest of the Season". Autosport.com. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  9. PRACTICE 1 retrieved from Formula One, 7 October 2005
  10. PRACTICE 2 retrieved from Formula One, 7 October 2005
  11. PRACTICE 3 retrieved from Formula One, 8 October 2005
  12. PRACTICE 4 retrieved from Formula One, 8 October 2005
  13. "QUALIFYING". Formula1.com. Formula1.com Limited. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  14. "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.
  15. "2005 Japanese Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive". GPArchive.com. 9 October 2005. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  16. 1 2 "Japan 2005 - Championship • STATS F1". www.statsf1.com. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
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2005 Brazilian Grand Prix
FIA Formula One World Championship
2005 season
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2005 Chinese Grand Prix
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2004 Japanese Grand Prix
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2006 Japanese Grand Prix

34°50′35″N136°32′26″E / 34.84306°N 136.54056°E / 34.84306; 136.54056