Alonso wins as Schumacher retires

Fernando Alonso has done the best job he could possibly image to realise in Japan by winning the Grand Prix while his competitor Schumacher retired from the race with an engine failure. Felipa Massa is second for the Scuderia Ferrari but with also Fisichella on the podium Renault is doing an incredible job in the constructor's championship too.

For once in the last years, both championships are extremely close with only 2 races to go, and as a result an immense crowd showed up for the temporarily last Japanese GP at Suzuka.

As expected, Alonso would have to challenge both Toyota's in front of him to not be hindered too much in the first stint. The light Japanese could make the championship battle for the Spaniard harder than expected. While Ferrari kept their front positions, Alonso moved up to fourth place after jumping Trulli in an intense fight into the first corner. The second Renault with Fisichella at the wheel made not such a good start and lost one place to Button.

In the next few laps, Schumacher easily overtook his teammate to take the lead while Barrichello enters the pitlane for another front wing.

In the same lap as Massa's early pitstop, Fernando Alonso is able to get Ralf and move up to third place before putting in the fastest lap of the race thus far. Massa meanwhile joined the track just behind Heidfeld's BMW Sauber that did not already pit. Fisichella followed suit by stopping next, and after Alonso's stop the Spaniard was ahead of both Heidfeld and Massa. Schumacher on the other hand is still 5 seconds ahead of the Spaniard after his first stop.

Equally tense is the race for Albers who is fighting with the Red Bull of Robert Doornbos. Although he may have anticipated more fights through the race, Alber's rear right suspension just broke in the braking zone for the final chicane. Albers thereby lost his rear wheel and left his rear wing shattered all over the circuit. Contrary to some expectations, the safety car was not brought out. Evil tongues may suggest that was because it would not be beneficial to Michael Schumacher.

The second stint basically left everything unchanged at the front. Michael Schumacher is clearly the faster in the beginning of the stint with new tyres, while Alonso's Michelin tyres prove to be more consistent and degrade less than the Bridgestones. Despite the excellent tyres, Schumacher did not have the luck at his side. Similar to Alonso's engine failure at Monza, this time it's the Ferrari that fails. With only 17 laps to go, Schumacher faces a 10 point loss to Alonso.

Only 4 laps later, Mark Webber missed the last corner of the circuit and and impressively hit the barriers. Though not very violently, the carbon fibre parts flew all over.

Finally, Fernando Alonso set straight what was wrong in the last series of races by winning this Grand Prix from 5th place on the grid. Felipe Massa is second and Fisichella third, meaning that Renault itself is also doing a very good job in the constructor's championship.