Schumacher wins ahead of the Renaults

Michael Schumacher has equalised Fernando Alonso in the championship for the drivers. A decent drive with no tactical errors brought him in the lead with 20 laps from the end to never give it away again. Alonso on the other hand drove fabulously in the rain and on the dry, but a questionable tyre choice and a problem during a pitstop left him 6 seconds behind the winner. Fisichella could help Renault regain the constructors lead and was followed by Button and De La Rosa

A damp track is the host of the 2006 Chinese GP. The track itself is wet but it stopped raining several minutes before the start of the race. Consequently, all drivers commenced with the race on wet weather tyres. Previously the FIA rejected to give permission to use extreme wet tyres for this race after Coulthard thought of it out loud during qualifying.

As the lights went green, Alonso was visibly a lot faster in the first lap and was already 2 seconds ahead of his teammateafter the initial lap. Behind the second Renault came up Kimi Raikkonen who made a spectacular start and overtook Button on the first passage of the back straight. Back in the pack, Kubica lost 5 places in his starts while Doornbos, starting from 10th got in contact with another car and had to come into the pitlane.

Although the skies are cloudy and look in for more rain, the air remains dry and the track becomes a little bit dryer. This may well be beneficial to Ferrari as the Bridgestone tyres have less grooves but are therefore better performing when the track is not too wet. In fact, 8 laps from the start Michael Schumacher passes Barrichello. Other Bridgestone runners are also increasing their pace as Webber is really moving up the field in between Michelin drivers. Felipe Massa at that time is still stuck with the Toyotas and some others as they are being held up by David Coulthard who is on a one-stop strategy.

5 laps later, both Raikkonen and Schumacher gain a place as they overtake Fisico and Button respectively. The further we advance through the race while it does not rain, Bridgestone will gain more and more advantage. Massa meanwhile also movd up places as he is 12th after 14 laps. When a further 2 laps later Raikkonen comes into the pitlane for fuel and new wet weather tyres, Michael Schumacher is already just 2 seconds behind Fisichella.

Both Honda drivers followed suit and rejoined the pitlane after Raikkonen. Button was complaining about the lack of profile on his tyres but at the time he entered there hardly seemed anything wrong with them. In fact, after getting back on the track he was slower with the new tyres compared to his pace before his pitstop. Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand had to retire quietly from the race after he apparently lost al power.

We are 21 laps in the race when Schumacher makes his first stop. The german did not have new tyres fitted, similarly to Fisichella who pitted 2 laps after him. In between, Alonso also made his first stop here he opted for new tyres.

After 24 laps Kubica fits slick tyres on his car but quickly notices that had been far too early. A single lap later and after lots of off-track experiences he pits again and gets his used wet weather tyres fitted.

Alonso however appeared to lack grip and got passed by both Fisichella and Schumacher. Fernando saw his 8 second gap over his teammate melt away in just 3 laps. His only left chance appears to be an early change to clicks. However yet again there seems to be a problem fitting the right rear wheel on the Renault. This time around the team spotted the problem before getting him back on track. Alonso obviously lost considerable time during that stop and rejoins the track only in 5th position. Anyway, the switch was just 3 laps too early as the Spaniard was only faster than after those laps than some other cars on wet weather tyres.

At that time Schumacher enters for dry weathers, followed by Fisichella one lap later. As Schumacher meets Fisichella in the first corner he does not hesitate a second and passes the slipping Italian. The Renault is still on cold tyres and while the dry weathers are beneficial it takes more time to get them on temperature. At the same time, Alonso starts to put in an incredible string of fastest laps.

Further in the pack Massa also abandons the race after touching Coulthard in the hairpin at the end of the back straight.

Alonso is incredibly fast on his dry weather tyres and is able to pass Fischella 9 laps from the end. While some may think of team orders, it's a fact that Alonso is 2 seconds faster than both Schumacher and Fisichella and keeps on going after regaining second place.

The last corner also proved eventful as some cars were together in a pack and on top of that, it started to rain again. Sakon Yamamoto in fact helped Button gain a place as he in fact blocked Heidfeld a bit. Button could profit, while Barrichello hit the rear of Heidfeld and saw De La Rosa move up two places. Heidfeld as a result fell back from 4th position to finish slowly in 7th.

The Chinese GP proved to be lucky for Schumacher who is now on equal points of Alonso in the championship. However, with one extra win, he is virtually the leader.