2005 Chinese Grand Prix

Friday drivers

The bottom 6 teams in the 2004 Constructors' Championship were entitled to run a third car in free practice on Friday. These drivers drove on Friday but did not compete in qualifying or the race.

Report

Background

After the Japanese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso led the drivers' standings with 19 points ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and 61 points ahead of Michael Schumacher. Renault led the constructors' championship by 2 points ahead of McLaren and 76 points ahead of Ferrari. This was the final race with Jim Rosenthal as ITV anchor in the United Kingdom. Rosenthal had held the role since ITV took over the UK's coverage of Formula One in 1997. For the 2006 season, Steve Rider returned to his position as anchor after losing his job when ITV got the rights to broadcast for 1997. On BBC Radio 5 Live, this was Ben Edwards' final race as radio commentator. Starting from 2006, David Croft would gain the commentary position alongside Maurice Hamilton. Edwards would later return for the 2012 season replacing Martin Brundle on BBC TV commentary.

Qualifying

Alonso took pole ahead of his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella. Raikkonen finished third ahead of Jenson Button and Juan Pablo Montoya.

Race

During warmup, as the cars ran from the pits to line up on the grid, a slow-moving Michael Schumacher pulled left into the path of Christijan Albers who was at speed. The cars collided causing considerable damage to each, earning Schumacher a reprimand from the stewards after the race. Both drivers changed to their teams' spare cars and started the race from the pitlane, along with Narain Karthikeyan. Alonso dominated the race, taking a lights-to-flag victory, capping a best-ever season for Renault which included victories in both titles. McLaren's bid for the constructors' championship effectively ended on lap 5, when Montoya's engine failed, ending his race, having also sustained damage from running over a loose drain cover – the drain incident was a known issue with the circuit, having occurred earlier in the year in a touring car event.

Renault's number two driver Giancarlo Fisichella's chances of making the podium ended when he received a drive-through penalty for obstructive driving in the pits during the second safety car period. He ended the race less than a second behind Ralf Schumacher. Red Bull's Christian Klien had a career-best drive to take fifth position with Felipe Massa, Mark Webber and Jenson Button completing the point-scoring finishers. Räikkönen recorded the race's fastest lap, a record-equalling tenth for the season.

Classification

Qualifying

Qualifying took place on October 15.

Race

;Notes

• – Michael Schumacher, Narain Karthikeyan and Christijan Albers started from the pit lane.

Final Championship standings

• Bold text and an asterisk indicates the World Champions. ;Drivers' Championship standings

;Constructors' Championship standings

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

Year_of_race = 2005 | Previous_year's_race = 2004 Chinese Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 2006 Chinese Grand Prix

References

1. "Shanghai F1: A glass half full or half empty?".
2. (19 October 2005). "Albers: Schumacher admitted error". Crash Media Group.
3. (2005-10-16). "Montoya: Drain broke whole side of car off!".
4. (18 October 2005). "Drain cover problems were known at Shanghai". GPUpdate.net.
5. "2005 FORMULA 1 Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix - Qualifying". Formula1.com Limited.
6. "2005 FORMULA 1 Sinopec Chinese Grand Prix - Race". Formula1.com Limited.
7. (16 October 2005). "2005 Chinese Grand Prix - Race Results & History - GP Archive".
8. "China 2005 - Championship • STATS F1".