Results from the 2005 China Grand Prix

World Champion Fernando Alonso clinched the win at Shanghai singing 'we are the champions' over the team radio. Alonso led from pole position to finish, an apt ending to a great season. Towards the end Kimi Raikkonen gave Alonso a run for his money, but had to contend with second place after making several uncharacteristic mistakes and his car was not running to par. However, it was a great season for Raikkonen too, having come so close to winning the Championship himself after such a poor start.

The penultimate race of the season, in which the Constructors' Championship was to be decided with just two points separating the Renault and McLaren teams, was packed with drama. But unfortunately the big showdown between the two effectively ended a third of the way into the race when Juan Pablo Montoya had to retired after a lose drain cover on the track popped up and he unluckily damaged his suspension on it. That left the Renaults the easy task of simply both finishing comfortably in the points to clinch the team's first ever Championship. It brought to an end a wretched season for Montoya who has been dogged by bad luck in several races.

Third place went to an unlikely Ralf Schumacher, who started from 9th position on the grid, but with great pit stop strategy and driving, managed to crawl his way up to the podium. Giancarlo Fisichella, who had started second and successfully shut out the two McLarens, eventually finished fourth, while Christian Klien had one of his best finishes in fifth, followed by Filipe Massa, Mark Webber and Jenson Button.

Even before the race began, there was excitement, as Michael Schumacher hit Christijan Albers on the way to the grid, damaging his car, as well as the Minardi-Cosworth car. Both drivers had to start from the pit lane in their spare cars. But Schumacher never recovered and ended up spinning out and retiring. A sad end to his, no doubt, frustrating season.

Alonso contends that this was the easiest race of the season, easily leading from start to finish. Several incidents lead to two safety car periods, which detracted from the race and made pit stop strategy more important than driving in some cases. The comfortable 17 second lead he has built up simply vanished as the safety car emerged while the offending drain cover was repair. Montoya was caught by unlucky timing which left him at the rear, but when the race re-started he discovered the extend of his damage and retited.

A second safety car period was triggered on lap 29 by Narain Karthikeyan crashed badly on Turn 13, almost taking Jacques Villeneuve with him. This left a tremendous amount of debris on the race track, which had to be cleared. Some drivers pitted, others stayed in track. But a late safety car round meant that many drivers were not able to make-up the time before the race finished, giving Alonso an easy win.

This year's F1 season has come to an end again. It's been an action-packed and surprising season. Michael Schumacher and Ferrari lost their domination of the F1 scene, perhaps to the glee of many fans and teams. This meant that F1 was no longer 'boring', as many had dubbed it over the last two years. The outcome of every race was up in the air this season and no doubt this drew new fans. Fernando Alonso being the new F1 Champion this year, puts new energy into the F1 racing scene. Being the youngest driver, at 24 years, to win the Championship is no simple feat and a wonderful coup for his team, Renault, who won their first Constructors' Championship over close rivals, McLaren-Mercedes.

The final standings for the 2005 Drivers' Championship:

  1. Fernando Alonso – Renault – 133 points
  2. Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren-Mercedes 112
  3. Michael Schumacher – Ferrari 62
  4. Juan Pablo Montoya - McLaren-Mercedes 60
  5. Giancarlo Fisichella – Renault 58
  6. Ralf Schumacher – Toyota 45
  7. Jarno Trulli – Toyota 43
  8. Rubens Barrichello – Ferrari 38
  9. Jenson Button - BAR-Honda 37
  10. Mark Webber – Williams-BMW 36
  11. Nick Heidfeld – Williams-BMW 28
  12. David Coulthard – Red Bull Racing 24
  13. Felipe Massa - Sauber-Petronas 11
  14. Jacques Villeneuve – Sauber-Petronas 9
  15. Christian Klien – Red Bull Racing 9
  16. Tiago Monteiro - Jordan-Toyota 7
  17. Alexander Wurz - McLaren-Mercedes 6
  18. Narain Karthikeyan - Jordan-Toyota 5
  19. Christijan Albers - Minardi-Cosworth 4
  20. Pedro de la Rosa - McLaren-Mercedes 4
  21. Patrick Friesacher - Minardi-Cosworth 3
  22. Antonio Pizzonia – Williams-BMW 2
  23. Takuma Sato – BAR-Honda 1
  24. Robert Doornbos – Minardi-Cosworth 0

So, the season finishes with the following Constructors' standings:

  1. Renault 191 points
  2. McLaren-Mercedes 182
  3. Ferrari 100
  4. Toyota 88
  5. Williams-BMW 66
  6. BAR-Honda 38
  7. Red Bull Racing 34
  8. Sauber-Petronas 20
  9. Jordan-Toyota 12
  10. Minardi-Cosworth 7

Full race result from Shanghai (2005)

  1. Fernando Alonso – Renault 1h 39m 53.618s
  2. Kimi Raikkonen - McLaren-Mercedes +4.0s
  3. Ralf Schumacher – Toyota +25.3s
  4. Giancarlo Fisichella – Renault +26.1s
  5. Christian Klien – Red Bull Racing +31.8s
  6. Felipe Massa – Sauber-Petronas +36.4s
  7. Mark Webber – Williams-BMW +36.8s
  8. Jenson Button – BAR-Honda +41.2s
  9. David Coulthard – Red Bull Racing +44.2s
  10. Jacques Villeneuve – Sauber-Petronas +59.9s
  11. Tiago Monteiro – Jordan-Toyota +84.6s
  12. Rubens Barrichello – Ferrari +92.8s
  13. Antonio Pizzonia + 1 lap
  14. Robert Doornbos - Minardi-Cosworth +1 lap
  15. Jarno Trulli – Toyota +1 lap
  16. Christijan Albers - Minardi-Cosworth +5 laps