When the safety car went in on lap six Ralf Schumacher continued to lead Fisichella and Button, with David Coulthard maintaining fourth from Mark Webber. But Michael Schumacher and Alonso had already made tremendous progress and were sixth and seventh, with Raikkonen chasing down Villeneuve, Antonio Pizzonia and Christian Klien.
Ralf Schumacher in his Toyota refuelled for the first of three times after only 13 laps - he was the first to make a scheduled stop, Toyota were obviously determined to have an overnight victory over rivals Honda at Honda's home track - and then the real pattern was established with Fisichella leading from Button. Alonso had a dramatic moment as he lost ground going off in the chicane and dirtying his tyres on the 8th lap as he passed Klien. He duly let the Austrian back through then immediately re-passed him into Turn 1. However, stewards decided that the Spaniard had still gained an advantage and he was forced to slow, let the Red Bull back through and then finally re-pass for good, the stewards apparently cancelled their original order for Alonso to let Klein through after he'd complied!
Alonso soon recovered and by lap 15 he was between Schumacher and Raikkonen as they fought over fifth place. For several laps Schumacher kept the Spaniard and the Finn behind, but then Alonso pulled a brilliant move on the former champion, going round the outside on the entry to the notorious 130R corner. Immediately he pulled clear of the Ferrari as Raikkonen closed in. But the Finn could not make the same move, and when he and Schumacher both pitted on the 26th lap (four laps later than Alonso), the German got back out ahead. By this time Fisichella was still the easy leader as Ralf Schumacher rise to second place was cancelled out by another stop. Button was second from Webber after Coulthard had lost a lot of time in his pit call. Twice during the race the Williams pit crews gained their driver's places by extremely slick pit work.
On lap 30 Raikkonen finally pulled off a superb pass on Schumacher by going round the outside of the Ferrari in Turn one, and from then on he started to work into the deficit to Webber and Button. On lap 32 Fernando Alonso was virtually touching the back of Schumacher's Ferrari going past the pits, and swept past Schumacher going into the first corner.
With only eight laps left we thought that surely Fisichella had the race in the bag. But Raikkonen was not finished. After 46 laps he was 5.4s behind, but then slashed that to only 4.3s a lap later. By lap 50 the Renault and the McLaren went past the pits separated by only half a second. The gap was just two-tenths next time around and a tenth on lap 52. As they went into the braking area for Turn One Raikkonen was wheel-to-wheel with the Italian's Renault and pulled off a fantastic move to go round the outside and into the lead.
As Fisichella dropped back to finish a bitterly disappointed second, Raikkonen celebrated a remarkable triumph, his seventh of the season one more than the new world drivers champion Fernando Alonso. Alonso's superb drive saw him take third place after catching Webber by surprise as they went into Turn One on lap 49, putting his right wheels onto the grass on the approach to the corner.
The Australian Mark Weber was impressive with a very strong fourth, while an unhappy Button was fifth and Coulthard an elated sixth in his Red Bull. After his never-say-die effort Michael Schumacher deserved a lot better than seventh place for Ferrari as he headed home his brother, who took the final point for Toyota.
Villeneuve was subsequently docked 25 seconds by the stewards for punting off Montoya, this dropped him back from 11th to 12th, hardly a fitting punishment when one considers the possible consequences for Juan Pablo and McLaren-Mercedes. Sato was also disqualified for his blunders and if it wasn't for the support he carries from the Japanese people and the combined weight of both Honda and Toyota I don't think we'd ever see him back in an f1 race.
Christian Albers was the final classified finisher in 17th place after his Minardi briefly caught fire during its refuelling stop on lap 34, the second time that this has happened to him.
Michael Schumacher moved ahead of Montoya in the fight for third place in the drivers' championship, Whereas Renault's 14 point haul pushed them back in front of McLaren in the race for the constructor's title, 176 points to 174, setting up the prospect of a great title climax in Shanghai.
Japanese Grand Prix 2005 result:
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 1hr 29mins 2.212 secs
2. Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:29:03.845
3. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:29:19.668
4. Mark Webber (Aus) Williams 1:29.24.466
5. Jenson Button (GB) BAR 1:29:31.719
6. David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull 1:29:33.813
7. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:29:36.091
8 .Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:29:51.760
9. Christian Klien (Aut) Red Bull 1:29:54.137
10. Felipe Massa (Bra) Sauber 1:29:59.721
11. Jacques Villeneuve (Can) Sauber 1:30.00.433*
12. Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Ferrari 1:30:02.845
13. Takuma Sato (Jap) BAR at 1 lap**
14. Tiego Monteiro (Por) Jordan at 1 lap
15. Robert Doornbos (Mon) Minardi at 2 laps
16. Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) Jordan at 2 laps
17. Christijan Albers (Ned) Minardi at 4 laps
Not Classified:
18. Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 9 laps
19 . Antonio Pizzonia (Bra) Williams 9 laps
20. Juan Pablo Montoya (Col) McLaren 0 laps.
