Newly crowned series champion Fernando Alonso won Formula One's 2005 finale at the Shanghai International Circuit. The No.5 Renault crossed the finish line 4.015 seconds ahead of runner-up Kimi Raikkonen. The victory was the Spaniard's seventh of the season and eighth of his F1 career. Action started even before the green flag. Michael Schumacher and Christijan Albers came together on one of the parade laps and both started in backup cars from pit lane. Alonso brought the field to the green flag and exploded down the first straight to a big lead. Meanwhile, his teammate Giancarlo Fisichella kept second place in front of constructors' championship rivals Juan Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren. Alonso built a lead of 2.1 seconds after the first lap and continued to expand the margin. By lap five the margin was 5.9 seconds. The McLaren pair were about eight seconds back and not making any charge, but possibly that was because they were carrying a heavier fuel load. Ten laps into the 56-lap event, the youngest champion in history's lead was 11.2 seconds. If Alonso could build the lead to about 21 seconds, he would be able to pit for fuel and re-enter the track without giving up the lead. On lap 18, Montoya ran over some debris and was forced to pit for another right-front tire. It left the Columbian in 13th place. Just after his stop, the safety car came out to pick up the debris. Alonso pitted on lap 19 with a 19.2-second lead, but with the safety car on track, remained the leader. His margin, however was now back to zero. Schumacher was the only car to remain on track during the caution and was up to 10th place. Then strangely while still under caution, Schumacher spun out ending his day on lap 23. One lap after the field went back to green, Montoya pulled his car into the garage, the damage more severe than just the tire. That pretty much wrapped up the constructors' championship for Renault. They entered the race with a two-point lead and unless both their cars dropped out over the final 31 laps, it was likely that Renault would hold both the drivers' title and the constructors' title in 2005. Narain Karthikeyan brought out the safety car for a second time on lap 30 when he completely destroyed his car upon exiting turn 13 onto the back straight. It appeared that the driver simply lost control. The green flag came out with 22 laps to go. Alonso once again jumped out to a quick lead, but it was over Ralf Schumacher who did not pit. Raikkonen came out fifth, one place ahead of Fisichella, but behind Felipe Massa and Christian Klien. Alonso built his lead up for the third time and with 15 laps to go was ahead of Raikkonen by 10.5 seconds who would be the second-place runner as soon as the second through fourth drivers pitted for their final stops. Raikkonen inherited second place with nine laps remaining and a deficit of 13.4 seconds. Could he put on another patented charge like the one in Suzuka, Japan? The Finn posted fastest lap of the race on lap 49 (1:33.313) and gained almost one second on the leader. With five laps to go, the margin was still 11.3 seconds and even with Fisichella being penalized for a pit lane infraction, the championship was not in doubt. Alonso completed the final five laps and earned his team the constructors title with his seventh win of the season. Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella, Klien, Massa, Mark Webber and Jenson Button completed the points-scoring positions.