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.[4]
At a press conference before the Japanese Grand Prix, Honda announced the acquisition of all shares in BAR.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[10][11] 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.[12][13]
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.
^1 – Kimi Räikkönen received a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.
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.
Kimi Räikkönen
