Alonso led from the start with team mate Giancarlo Fisichella in an ideal second place, holding off the challenge of the McLaren pair allowing Alonso and his Renault to disappear into the distance. That order prevailed until lap 17, when Montoya running behind Fisichella and Raikkonen ran over a dislodged drain cover in Turn 10. The Colombian continued for another lap and a half before pitting on lap 18, but he was to go back in a lap later after the safety car was deployed while the damaging cover was retrieved.
The safety car stayed out until lap 24 as other covers were checked, and when racing resumed on lap 25 Alonso was still in front. The safety car period had wiped out his 17.5s lead, but he was able to refuel while under the safety car control enabling him to maintain his lead over Fisichella and Raikkonen. Coulthard and Button were really penalized by the safety car as they had pitted the lap before it was deployed. When the safety car went in Alonso quickly began to open up a lead again over Fisichella, but Raikkonen was unable to seriously challenge the second Renault.
On lap 29 Narain Karthikeyan spun his Jordan and crashed very heavily in Turn 13. Villeneuve had a lucky escape as he just avoided the car as it slid back across his path, but there was so much debris on track that it resulted in another safety car period, this time it stayed out until lap 34. Ralf Schumacher, Massa and Klien all stayed out as the others pitted, so that when racing resumed on lap 35 they were running second, third and fourth behind Alonso. Raikkonen managed to pass Fisichella during this round of pit stops, but the Italian's ploy of trying to hold up everyone on his in lap, as Raikkonen had done at Spa, later earned him a drive through penalty. The FIA had warned everyone beforehand that such tactics were unsporting and wouldn't be tolerated. Fisichella was to earn himself a drive-through penalty allowing Raikkonen on lap 47 to really chase after Alonso.
Ralf Schumacher benefited from clever pit stop strategy and claimed another podium finish in third place whilst brother Michael had spun out earlier to complete what has been for him a disastrous season.
Unfortunately the two safety car periods worked against the two McLarens and the race result saw Renault comfortably take the constructor's championship and Alonso to equal Raikkonen's total of seven Grand Prix wins this season.
Chinese Grand Prix 2005 result:
1. Fernando Alonso Renault 1:39:53.618
2. Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes +4.0 secs
3. Ralf Schumacher Toyota +25.3 secs
4. Giancarlo Fisichella Renault +26.1 secs
5. Christian Klien Red Bull Racing +31.8 secs
6. Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas +36.4 secs
7. Mark Webber Williams-BMW +36.8 secs
8. Jenson Button BAR-Honda +41.2 secs
9. David Coulthard Red Bull Racing +44.2 secs
10. Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas +59.9 secs
11. Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota +84.6 secs
12. Rubens Barrichello Ferrari +92.8 secs
13. Antonio Pizzonia Williams-BMW Puncture
14. Robert Doornbos Minardi-Cosworth +1 Lap
15. Jarno Trulli Toyota +1 Lap
16. Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth +5 Laps
