The Complete 2007 Chinese GP Review

"This weekend's been a bit of a rollercoaster and quite an emotional trip," said Lewis Hamilton - and that was before his potentially title-clinching race ended in the pit entry gravel, as Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso decimated his points lead by finishing first and second at Shanghai.

Raikkonen may have won Ferrari's 200th Grand Prix, while Alonso added another episode to his McLaren soap opera by aiming more verbal vitriol at his team during his post-qualifying interviews, but these were adjuncts to the main story of the 2007 Chinese GP weekend: Hamilton's 'rollercoaster' journey.

It started with a trough: criticism from his peers and the threat of official censure over what Mark Webber described as his "shit job" under the safety car at Fuji, amid suggestions that Sebastian Vettel's collision with Webber had been triggered by Hamilton driving erratically ahead.

As he awaited a call to the stewards on Friday, Hamilton vented his dismay over the issue.

"I had a good weekend - I don't think I put a foot wrong and I didn't do anything to harm anyone else or put anyone else in danger - but I've come away to China and all of a sudden I'm no doubt going to be punished for something," he said.

"I just think this is a real shame for the sport. Formula One is supposed to be about hard competition, but fair, and that's what I've tried to do this year - just be fair.

"It looks like this weekend I'm probably going to given a penalty and I think it's just a shame for the sport. If this is the way it's going to keep going then it's probably not somewhere that I want to be."

Once the stewards dismissed the possibility of a penalty, Hamilton was revitalised and despite not featuring at the front in practice (where, as he confessed, his mind had been elsewhere) he stormed to a shock pole position ahead of pre-session favourite Raikkonen, and 0.7 seconds quicker than the enraged Alonso in fourth.

He remained at the peak of the rollercoaster early in the race, driving sublimely - lighter fuel load notwithstanding - as he left his pursuers behind at a second or more per lap.

But the weekend ended with the most gutting low yet. Persisting with extraordinarily worn intermediate tyres on a dry track, he fell eight seconds per lap off the pace, was passed by Raikkonen and then slithered into retirement in the most prosaic of locations - a tiny pit entry gravel bed.

McLaren defended Hamilton. Just as they accentuated the role of damaged bodywork in Alonso's Fuji crash, so they pinned the blame for Hamilton's demise on a team strategy decision.

"There were spits of rain at that point and the threat of another shower," said CEO Martin Whitmarsh. "We could have brought him in, but if we'd switched to new options we'd probably have had graining in those conditions.

"With hindsight we as a team made the wrong call. We thought there'd be a greater risk if we put him onto dry tyres. The circuit was about ready for it, but there is always a risk of a driver sliding off on cold-ish tyres in difficult conditions like that. We decided to avoid that risk but in doing so exposed him to another risk, that of the tyres wearing out."

In case anyone was tempted to ascribe Hamilton's exit to a tyre 'failure', Bridgestone made clear that the excessive wear was down to how the rubber had been treated, not its design.

"Maintaining the wet tyre on the drying track was crucial, and it was possible to see which cars had worn their wet tyres too much by looking at the television monitors," said the company's motorsport boss Hirohide Hamashima.

The fact that Raikkonen and Alonso ran virtually identical strategies without such dramas underlined that this was simply a rare and very untimely miscue from the normally infallible Hamilton/McLaren partnership.

Ten days ago a three-way fight at Interlagos still looked more than likely, and given Alonso's pre-Fuji form the odds were on him arriving at the finale in front. It was only Hamilton's mastery in Japan that turned things around.

His comfort margin has now gone - if Alonso wins, Hamilton must be no lower than second, if Raikkonen wins, Hamilton needs fifth or better. But judging by how often he has stunned the opposition this year, there's no reason why the rookie can't render all those calculations academic by simply beating both his rivals in what is sure to be a breathtaking showdown in Brazil.

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

In warm and dry conditions, Kimi Raikkonen started the weekend with the fastest time, beating Fernando Alonso by 0.084 seconds. Felipe Massa - who spun on his last run - and Lewis Hamilton completed the usual top four.

With the GP2 season now over, Kazuki Nakajima returned to take up Friday duties for Williams. He was ninth fastest, four places behind teammate Nico Rosberg.

BMW's Robert Kubica took sixth, but teammate Nick Heidfeld lost a lot of mileage after stopping with a hydraulic leak.

Practice two - Friday pm

Raikkonen left it until the closing seconds to repeat his morning result - this time beating Alonso by just 0.006 seconds. Massa was only another 0.017 seconds slower in third.

Hamilton had a spin at Turn 1 and was a comparatively huge 0.269 seconds adrift. He later admitted that he had been distracted by the looming prospect of a penalty for his driving under the safety car at Fuji.

"It's not easy to forget something like that - not knowing whether you're going to get your points taken away," said the championship leader, who was eventually exonerated late on Friday night.

Elsewhere in the field, Heidfeld suffered a repeat of his hydraulic glitch just 11 minutes into the afternoon. Renault's Heikki Kovalainen was also in trouble, parking with a loss of fuel pressure. Both cars were brought back into the pits in time to rejoin the session later on.

Practice three - Saturday am

Raikkonen completed a hat-trick in the final session, again ahead of Alonso by just a small margin, this time 0.026 seconds. But the Finn had a troubling end to the session as a hydraulic leak halted him as he completed his last flying lap.

Hamilton moved up to third ahead of Massa this time.

Fresh from announcing his impending exit from Toyota - and having been seventh on Friday afternoon - Ralf Schumacher continued his strong form with fifth, ahead of David Coulthard.

Qualifying

Part one

Q1 came to a frantic conclusion as 12 of the bottom 15 drivers all made major gains on their last runs.

Those who crossed the line first quickly had their hopes dashed - Rubens Barrichello plunging from ninth to 17th in a matter of moments. He was 0.026 seconds shy of making the cut, with just 0.36 seconds blanketing seventh to 18th places.

Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella was at the back of that group, while teammate Heikki Kovalainen only just scraped through in 16th. Fisichella felt "under-prepared" having not found a decent set-up until the very end of third practice, and cited tyre graining and an error at the last corner too.

For the seventh time this year Alex Wurz also made an early departure, equalling his season-worst in 19th. "We just didn't have the speed," he said.

A week after the drama and (ultimately) disappointment of Fuji, Toro Rosso looked like they would have another chance to impress in China. Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi easily made it to Q2 in eighth and ninth places.

Anthony Davidson also got through for Super Aguri, beating 20th-placed teammate Takuma Sato by a second as the Japanese driver struggled to get any "bite" from the tyres.

Spyker always looked unlikely to repeat their recent promising form, and there were no surprises in qualifying as Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto returned to the back row.

At the front the competition was just as close as the midfield. Kimi Raikkonen was fastest by exactly a tenth of a second, with just 0.017 seconds covering Felipe Massa, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Part two

Raikkonen's seemingly unstoppable progress towards pole continued in Q2, where he stretched his advantage to 0.415 seconds. This time his trio of pursuers were 0.102 seconds apart.

Toro Rosso also maintained their impressive momentum, and Liuzzi seemed set to emulate teammate Vettel's Japanese achievement and reach Q3 until Ralf Schumacher and Jenson Button squeezed ahead in the dying moments.

That pushed Liuzzi down to 11th, one place and 0.029 seconds ahead of Vettel.

"Already in Japan we saw that our car has made a step forward and here it was better still," said technical director Giorgio Ascanelli. "Although I am happy with this performance there is still a very slight feeling of regret, as I think we could have got at least one car into the top ten."

Toro Rosso had more cause for regret five hours later when Vettel was found to have impeded Heikki Kovalainen and was moved down to 17th. With his anticipated ten place grid penalty having been cancelled only the previous evening, this new punishment was unpleasantly ironic for the rookie.

It was also surprising as Kovalainen's only post-session complaint had been about his own errors at Turns 13 and 16, which left the Renault a disappointing 14th - alongside the baffled Jarno Trulli.

"I noticed the balance had changed compared to yesterday and I just couldn't understand how. The more laps I did the worse it seemed to get," said the Italian.

Davidson was 15th, and extremely satisfied.

"It got a little bit scary through that last corner but I just had to give it everything," he said.

"Getting through to Q2 is like pole position for us, and it's good to make it through once again, better than my teammate again, and that's what I've got to keep looking at."

After five consecutive Q3 appearances, Nico Rosberg was only 16th at Shanghai - to Patrick Head's displeasure.

"A very weak performance from us," said Williams' engineering director. "We seem to have difficulty getting the time out of the option tyre, but other teams haven't so we have to look to ourselves for the cause of that."

Part three

Fastest in every Shanghai session so far, Raikkonen was an obvious favourite for pole position. But although his first flying lap beat both McLarens' initial efforts, it was three tenths of a second slower than his teammate Massa managed as the Brazilian swept to provisional pole.

That was a surprise development, but it was nothing compared to what followed, as Hamilton - who had not looked a threat at any stage during the weekend - found 0.7 seconds on his last flying lap and leapt to the top of the timesheets.

"I was just chipping away and I'm thrilled to get pole position because going into qualifying I didn't think I had the pace of Fernando," said the championship leader.

"I knew that if I just worked at it and didn't overdo it, I might just be able to do it and I did, so I'm really happy."

Raikkonen could not match the McLaren, lapping 0.136 seconds slower and ending up a surprised second.

"I think there could be different fuel loads in the cars," the Finn mused.

As Hamilton and Raikkonen improved, Massa fell from provisional pole to third, having failed to make any gains on his own last run.

"I did a very good lap on the first attempt and then just lost the car on the second one." said the Brazilian. "The car was pretty good but I just came into Turn 11 too quick, too aggressive, and just lost the rear end."

However the most frustrated man was Alonso - mired in fourth place and seven tenths of a second slower than his teammate. Rumours soon spread of a post-session tantrum in the McLaren motorhome, and the world champion launched another scathing attack on the team, and Ron Dennis in particular, during his Spanish press briefing. But amid all the rage, he was at a loss to explain his lack of speed.

"It was a pretty weird qualifying, because in Q1 and Q2 we were all closely matched, but then in Q3 I was a little lower than I expected," he said. "But both my laps were good and let's hope it's something to do with the fuel load."

To his own amazement, David Coulthard took fifth place - .a second adrift of the leaders but a clear four tenths ahead of Schumacher in sixth.

"I am a little bit surprised, because honestly I have just been driving the same way as I did in the year's previous qualifying, but for some reason people are behind me..." said Coulthard, whose Red Bull teammate Mark Webber took seventh on a very strong afternoon for the squad.

The BMWs had to settle for an unaccustomed eighth and ninth, with Nick Heidfeld 0.017 seconds faster than Robert Kubica despite the Pole having been comfortably ahead in Q1 and Q2.

Heidfeld reckoned his miserable Friday practice had left the team on the back foot.

"The time I lost in both Friday practice sessions definitely influenced the result," he said.

After taking his Honda to 10th, Button was almost as surprised as Coulthard. The team were caught out too, having used all their soft tyres in Q1 and Q2 in the expectation that they would get no further.

Qualifying results

The Race

As anticipated by the teams, wet weather arrived for race day. While the rain was nothing like as heavy as it had been at Fuji, the repeated showers that passed over Shanghai had the potential to make the Chinese Grand Prix even more unpredictable than the consistent downpours had in Japan.

Lewis Hamilton reached Turn 1 with a clear advantage over Kimi Raikkonen, as Fernando Alonso managed to go around the outside of Felipe Massa for the first corner, then pulled alongside Raikkonen on the exit of Turn 3 but lacked the traction to get ahead.

Massa then caught the world champion off guard into Turn 6, nipping back down the inside to reclaim third. With Massa unable to match the leaders' pace, this would prove costly for Alonso.

David Coulthard retained fifth despite pressure from Nick Heidfeld's fast-starting BMW. Vitantonio Liuzzi had also made an outstanding getaway to take his Toro Rosso up to seventh, muscling past Mark Webber further around the lap.

Liuzzi's teammate Sebastian Vettel matched his progress - sweeping around the outside of the pack at the first turn to move from 17th to 12th behind Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen and Jenson Button. He passed the latter duo soon afterwards as both the Renault and the Honda developed handling problems in the wet and began losing places rapidly.

Ralf Schumacher was also going backwards from sixth on the grid - making a poor start and then spinning at Turn 2. He completed the lap five seconds behind even the Spykers, who had gambled on starting with extreme wets but would soon pit for more appropriate intermediates.

Other drivers to lose ground included Nico Rosberg, who fell to 19th with a poor start, and Rubens Barrichello and Anthony Davidson, who tangled at the first corner on lap two. Both spun to the rear, and Davidson only lasted another 10 laps before brake problems triggered by the collision caused his retirement.

"I was just trying to go around the outside of him and just felt a small tap - it wasn't much - and it was just enough to damage my right rear bodywork, which then covered the brake duct and overheated the rear brakes," the Super Aguri driver explained.

With both Rosberg and Schumacher fighting back through the midfield in spectacular style - Schumacher in particular producing his best drive of the year in what may be his penultimate GP - while Button and Kovalainen lost ground, there was plenty of overtaking as the cars scrabbled for grip in the early stages.

The Toro Rossos were also entertaining further up, as Vettel progressed to 10th, and Liuzzi made good use of his two-stop fuel load to pass Heidfeld for sixth on lap four.

The racing wasn't so close at the front, for Hamilton was in dominant form early on. Lapping up to a second faster than Raikkonen, he established a nine-second lead in the first stint, and with Alonso still trailing Massa in fourth, the Briton was 16 seconds clear of his main title rival by the time he pitted from the lead on lap 15.

With conditions improving but more showers expected, McLaren opted to leave Hamilton on his current set of intermediates - a choice mirrored by the rest of the top six when they all made their first of two stops over the following four laps.

Raikkonen stayed out longest of the frontrunners and was able to reduce Hamilton's lead to four seconds. But an additional low fuel lap made no difference to Alonso in his battle with Massa, as he rejoined just behind the Ferrari again and remained 17 seconds behind Hamilton.

The one-stopping BMWs and Webber duly moved up to fifth, sixth and seventh, ahead of the flying Vettel, with Coulthard and Liuzzi rejoining ninth and 11th, split by Jarno Trulli and not far in front of the charging Rosberg and Schumacher.

By now there was a clear dry line, but race control's forecast promised another shower within minutes. Trapped behind the slow Kovalainen and Button in 16th, Alex Wurz decided it was worth "trying to pull a rabbit out of the hat" and pitted for dry tyres on lap 22.

The Austrian set a new fastest lap two laps later, and with most the midfield nearing the moment when their single fuel stops would be due, a dash for 'slicks' followed.

Webber and Schumacher led the way - the Toyota having got as high as 12th before spinning again after colliding with Liuzzi at Turn 6. The German had pulled off some sumptuous outside line passes earlier in the race, but tried to turn in too soon on this occasion, and was nudged into a long slide that ended in an unplanned 'doughnut' spin on a slippery advertisement in the run-off.

Over the next four laps all bar Hamilton, Raikkonen, Alonso, Heidfeld and Liuzzi stopped for dry tyres, with Massa the only frontrunner to make the change. He had finally lost third to Alonso just before his stop, as the world champion forced the Ferrari to take too tight a line at the hairpin and then cruised past on the exit.

But it appeared that staying out had been the correct choice, as the predicted shower hit the track amid the flurry of stops. Schumacher's swashbuckling race duly ended as he spun and stalled at the final corner - moments before Adrian Sutil slammed into the barriers at the same spot.

Webber and Barrichello were sufficiently perturbed to come back into the pits and return to intermediates, while Heidfeld also stuck with inters when he made his sole scheduled stop on lap 28.

Rosberg struggled too and came under simultaneous attack from both Renaults into Turn 1. Fisichella's choice of the outside line worked best as he surged around both cars and into 13th, while Rosberg was puzzled to find himself with a puncture despite being convinced there was no contact. He slewed into the gravel and then had a long trip back to the pits. Kovalainen was also spooked into running wide as his teammate barrelled past, but continued unscathed.

Hamilton may have been on the correct tyres in theory, but in practice his intermediates had become so worn that they were virtually useless when the rain fell again. The leader's times suddenly shot up from 1:44s to 1:50s, and then 1:55s.

This brought Raikkonen and Alonso - who had both conserved their rubber better - back into the hunt. Hamilton refused to give up without a fight and held Raikkonen to the outside when the Finn first tried to pass, but on lap 29 he ran wide into Turn 8 and had to concede.

The severity of Hamilton's problems then became even more obvious as Raikkonen pulled away by seven seconds per lap, and Alonso gained on his teammate at a similar rate.

By this time the rain had passed and the drivers on dry tyres found the track coming back to them. Having stopped at the ideal moment (lap 25) and then achieved better pace than most during the shower, Kubica passed Massa and became the top slick runner - taking over five seconds per lap out of new leader Raikkonen.

McLaren therefore brought Hamilton in on lap 31 - but he never reached the pit box. With his right rear tyre down to canvas, the championship leader ran wide at the curve in the pit entry and slithered into the small gravel trap on the outside of the corner, where he trickled to a halt, rear wheels bogged down.

There would be no repeat of his Nurburgring escape - Hamilton's exhortations to the marshals proving in vain - and the championship leader had to retire from a race for the first time in his Formula One career.

"We didn't know whether it was going to rain or not and the tyres that I was on were just getting worse and worse," said Hamilton.

"I was coming into the pits and it was like ice. I couldn't do anything about it.

"I was coming in that lap, so it could have worked out perfectly. I think we had the pace in the dry."

Raikkonen and Alonso managed another lap on their intermediates before pitting, but that left both behind the superb Kubica, whose pace on dry tyres saw him close in by half a minute between his stop and the leaders'.

Having pitted with 31 laps to go, Kubica had a genuine chance of winning BMW's first race if he could make the fuel last and fend off Raikkonen.

But the crowd never got to see if he was up to the challenge, for after just a single lap in the lead the BMW wilted with a repeat of the hydraulic problems that had plagued Heidfeld in practice.

"Here we do not have the opportunity to analyse such a problem and to take the respective measures," admitted team boss Mario Theissen. "Therefore, we knew before the race started there was a risk of a failure."

"I had good pace, but what can you do?" shrugged Kubica. "I would have been fighting for the top positions, for sure."

His demise left Raikkonen with a 10-second advantage over Alonso, who had rejoined fractionally ahead of Massa - by now up to speed on dry tyres - then quickly escaped the Brazilian's clutches and started hunting down the leader.

With Heidfeld having had to pit again for slicks, fourth now belonged briefly to Vettel, before the Toro Rosso was passed by Button's flying Honda. The car's behaviour was transformed on the dry track, but with another pitstop to make - unlike Vettel, who was fuelled to the flag - the Briton was putting on a sprint, setting new fastest laps along the way.

"The first stint was awful - in the wet the car just wasn't working," he said. "But on the slick tyres, I loved it. It's nice picking people off when they're messing around having oversteer and stuff."

Having mirrored the leaders' strategies, and maintained a good pace on worn intermediates, Liuzzi found himself in sixth place. He was under pressure from Wurz and Fisichella, but both would also have to pit again. Struggling to get any pace from his tyres, Wurz faded to a distant 12th after his stop.

Heidfeld had rejoined ninth ahead of Coulthard, who had lost too much time on slicks in the damp. Webber had to make a third stop to return to dry tyres and resumed 11th, with Kovalainen, who was fuelled to the finish, closing steadily on him.

Like Wurz, Trulli couldn't muster much speed from his package in the dry and would take his second consecutive 13th place, ahead of only Sato - troubled by a mechanical problem that left his Super Aguri "bouncing" - the delayed Barrichello and Rosberg, and Sakon Yamamoto.

It looked like this already highly dramatic race might build to a grandstand finish as Alonso closed on Raikkonen in the last stint, but once the Finn's soft tyres came to life, he was able to hold the gap at eight seconds.

Raikkonen maintained that advantage to the finish, leading Alonso to a result that threw both of them a championship lifeline and created a spine-tingling three-way shoot-out in Brazil.

"He was catching me at first while I had some problems with the front tyres but once they started to work I could keep the gap the same," said Raikkonen, whose fifth win of the year was also Ferrari's 200th in F1.

"So I knew that we should be fine, but I wanted to keep pushing because you never know - if it rains a little bit it might change the whole picture again. I was happy to have a little bit of breathing space.

"We're back in the championship and it will be interesting in the last race."

Alonso was still pessimistic about his chances of his third straight title.

"I'm happy with the result of the race because I've been very, very lucky with the retirement of Lewis," he said.

"For a championship chance I think it's still very difficult to recover four points in a normal race. I will be very optimistic for Brazil, but knowing it will be difficult."

Massa filled the podium, 50 seconds clear of the delighted Vettel.

"Last weekend everyone told me to keep my head up because I'd driven a good race, but obviously as a driver you need time to recover and get over disappointments," said Vettel.

"But this was a great result - a kind of payback. Yesterday I wasn't happy with my grid penalty but today I got my revenge on the track.

"When I left the factory in Italy, the guys said 'Sebastian, you must bring back some points' and I said I'd try. In Fuji we got close and today came this great result."

Button managed to rejoin ahead of Liuzzi in fifth after his late final stop, with the Italian resisting pressure from Heidfeld to complete an outstanding day for Toro Rosso in sixth.

Kovalainen passed Webber eight laps from the end but couldn't get around the second Red Bull, as Coulthard hung on to take the final point.

Race results

56 laps; 305.066km;
Weather: partially wet.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari            (B)  1h37:58.395
 2.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes   (B)  +     9.800
 3.  Massa         Ferrari            (B)  +    12.800
 4.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  +    53.500
 5.  Button        Honda              (B)  +    68.600
 6.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B)  +    73.600
 7.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber         (B)  +    74.200
 8.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault   (B)  +    80.700
 9.  Kovalainen    Renault            (B)  +    81.100
10.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault   (B)  +    84.600
11.  Fisichella    Renault            (B)  +    86.600
12.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota    (B)  +    1 Lap
13.  Trulli        Toyota             (B)  +    1 Lap
14.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda  (B)  +    1 Lap
15.  Barrichello   Honda              (B)  +    1 Lap
16.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota    (B)  +    2 Laps
17.  Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari     (B)  +    3 Laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:37.454

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Kubica        BMW Sauber         (B)     34
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes   (B)     31
R.Schumacher  Toyota             (B)     26
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari     (B)     25
Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda  (B)     12

World Championship standings, round 16:

Drivers:                    Constructors:
 1.  Hamilton     107        1.  Ferrari              186
 2.  Alonso       103        2.  BMW Sauber            94
 3.  Raikkonen    100        3.  Renault               51
 4.  Massa         86        4.  Williams-Toyota       28
 5.  Heidfeld      58        5.  Red Bull-Renault      24
 6.  Kubica        35        6.  Toyota                12
 7.  Kovalainen    30        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     8
 8.  Fisichella    21        8.  Honda                  6
 9.  Rosberg       15        9.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
10.  Coulthard     14       10.  Spyker-Ferrari         1
11.  Wurz          13
12.  Webber        10
13.  Trulli         7
14.  Vettel         6
15.  Button         6
16.  R.Schumacher   5
17.  Sato           4
18.  Liuzzi         3
19.  Sutil          1

Team-by-Team

Hamilton is out of sorts on Friday as controversy over his driving at Fuji lingers, but after being fully exonerated he grabs a shock pole. He dominates in the wet early laps, only to get caught and passed by Raikkonen and then slide into the gravel in the pit entrance having asked too much of his extremely worn intermediates.

Fourth on the grid leaves Alonso furious and puzzled, and he loses a lot of ground trapped behind Massa early on after losing a spirited first lap battle with the Ferrari. He finally passes Massa on lap 26, then gains rapidly on Hamilton before the Briton's retirement. When Kubica drops out, Alonso moves up to second and closes on Raikkonen briefly before taking the runner-up spot.

A disastrous qualifying sees Kovalainen and Fisichella only 14th and 18th fastest, despite having no substantial problems. Kovalainen gains places at the start then understeers down the order. Both cars come alive as the track dries but it's too late to reach the points. Kovalainen stops once and pushes Coulthard hard for eighth at the end. The lighter Fisichella gets up to seventh but his last pitstop drops him to 11th, where he finishes on Webber's tail.

Raikkonen is fastest throughout practice (despite a hydraulic problem at the end of the final session) and the first two-thirds of qualifying, but is second on the grid to the lighter Hamilton. He falls away from the McLaren at first then catches and passes as the track dries. Kubica's retirement hands him the lead and he is able to keep Alonso at bay and win.

An error on his last qualifying lap leaves Massa third. He holds off Alonso for 26 laps, then makes an early switch to dry tyres, but loses ground at first. Recovers to third once Kubica retires, but cannot challenge Alonso. Sets fastest lap on the last lap.

Button is optimistic after practice and then surprises himself with 10th on the grid. Hamstrung by appalling handling in the wet, he goes backwards at first, but revels in the car's performance on dry tyres and surges up the leaderboard.

He runs fourth for a while but his two stop strategy costs him a place to Vettel. Barrichello is also feeling positive on Friday but his weekend tails off. He only manages 17th on the grid, tangles with Davidson on lap two, makes an unnecessary switch back to intermediates when the mid-race shower hits, and ends up only 15th,

Heidfeld has two hydraulic failures on Friday and is frustrated to qualify eighth, a place ahead of Kubica, who expected better after being ahead in practice and Q1/2. A good start takes Heidfeld up to sixth, and despite being passed by the lighter Liuzzi, he is on course for fourth until conservatively choosing to stay on intermediates at his single scheduled stop - even though Kubica (who ran eighth early on) is flying on dry tyres at the same time.

Heidfeld's extra pit visit leaves him seventh, but Kubica's amazing speed on dries in the damp means he vaults into the lead when the Ferraris and McLarens stop. But the fragile hydraulics force him to retire just one lap later.

Perhaps invigorated by announcing his imminent exit, Schumacher is quick in practice then takes sixth on the grid. He spins on the first lap but shows real flair as he charges back to 12th, only to tangle with Liuzzi and spin again. He then pits for dry tyres but is caught out in the subsequent shower and spins off for good. Trulli starts well with fifth on Friday then is puzzled by his car's changing handling. He qualifies and finishes 13th, having shown well in the wet at first before fading in the second half of the race.

Coulthard and Webber achieve RBR's best qualifying of the year in fifth and seventh. The heavier Webber is passed by Kubica early on and runs ninth, but Coulthard remains comfortable in the top five. They make early pitstops for dry tyres but are caught out by the shower - Coulthard losing more time on track than most and Webber making an unnecessary change back to intermediates. They consequently end up eighth and 10th, resisting pressure from a Renault apiece.

Williams struggle to make the soft tyres work and consequently slump to 16th (Rosberg) and 19th (Wurz) in qualifying. Rosberg makes a bad start but then progresses well before going off with a puncture while dicing with the Renaults. The delay leaves him 16th again at the flag. Wurz is the first to try dry tyres and briefly holds fastest lap, but is troubled by the tyres again later on and fades to 12th after his second pitstop.

Vettel's ten place grid penalty from Fuji is annulled just in time for him to receive a five place drop for blocking in qualifying - which is doubly frustrating as he had just helped to achieve Toro Rosso's best ever qualifying result by joining Liuzzi on row six.

They make up for it in the race, rapidly charging to sixth and 10th. Vettel then times his single stop perfectly to coincide with the switch to dry tyres and emerges in fourth, which he holds to the end. Liuzzi's two stop strategy combines less well with the showers, but he comes through to sixth nevertheless, vaulting the team up to seventh in the constructors'.

After the promise of Fuji, Spyker slump in Shanghai, with Sutil and Yamamoto on the back row again. They gamble on extreme wets at the start but lose a lot of time and soon change to intermediates. Sutil has an early spin then crashes for good after taking dry tyres. Yamamoto finishes 17th and last.

Davidson qualifies strongly in 15th, Sato struggles again and is 20th. An early collision with Barrichello leads to terminal brake problems for Davidson, while Sato is troubled by a "bouncing" car but benefits from others' delays to take 14th.

Lap-by-Lap

Pre-race: Change in climatic conditions declared.

Ralf Schumacher spins as the field starts the opening lap © XPB/LAT

Lap 1: On pole for the sixth time this season, Lewis Hamilton makes a good start to beat Kimi Raikkonen to Turn 1.

Felipe Massa loses out to Fernando Alonso through the first complex, but regains third before the lap is through. David Coulthard stays in fifth place but Ralf Schumacher spins from sixth to last at Turn 1.

Nick Heidfeld takes sixth and Tonio Liuzzi makes a terrific start to rise to seventh ahead of Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Jarno Trulli, Anthony Davidson, Rubens Barrichello, Takuma Sato, Alex Wurz, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nico Rosberg, Adrian Sutil, Sakon Yamamoto and Schumacher. Hamilton leads by 0.6 seconds.

Lap 2: Hamilton leads by 1.5 seconds. Barrichello hits Davidson at Turn 1 and both spin to the tail of the field. Vettel and Trulli pass Button.

Lap 3: Hamilton extends his lead by another 0.5 seconds. Schumacher, Davidson and Barrichello pass the Spykers.

Lap 4: Hamilton laps in 1:46.372, his best yet, and edges 2.7 seconds clear. Liuzzi passes Heidfeld for sixth. Rosberg passes Fisichella.

Lap 5: Rosberg passes Wurz for 15th. Barrichello passes Davidson.

Lap 6: Hamilton leads by 4.0 seconds. Kubica takes eighth from Webber. Schumacher passes Fisichella. Sutil pits.

Lap 7: Vettel passes Kovalainen for 10th. Rosberg passes Sato. Yamamoto pits.

Lap 8: Hamilton posts a 1:45.686 to lead by 5.2 seconds. Trulli passes Kovalainen. Wurz and Schumacher pass Sato.

Lap 9: Fisichella passes Sato.

Lap 10: Hamilton ups his pace again - 1:45.677 - to lead by 6.6 seconds.

Lap 11: Schumacher passes Wurz. Davidson pits.

Fernando Alonso runs off track in the first turn © XPB/LAT

Lap 12: Hamilton laps in 1:45.545: his lead grows to 7.2 seconds. Barrichello passes Sato. Davidson pulls off to retire.

Lap 14: Quarter-distance. Hamilton leads Raikkonen by 8.6 seconds. Massa is 5.3 seconds further adrift in third, Alonso 2.0 seconds behind him in fourth. Rosberg passes Button for 13th.

Lap 15: Hamilton makes his first stop, for fuel only, and slips to fourth. Raikkonen leads.

Lap 16: Leader Raikkonen sets fastest lap so far: 1:45.036.

Lap 17: Raikkonen laps in 1:44.372. Massa pits. Rosberg passes Kovalainen. Schumacher passes Button.

Lap 18: Raikkonen posts a 1:43.853. Alonso pits. Schumacher passes Kovalainen. Sutil spins his lapped Spyker at Turn 1.

Lap 19: Raikkonen, Coulthard and Liuzzi pit. Hamilton regains the lead.

Lap 20: Hamilton leads Raikkonen by 4.0 seconds. The top four remain as before.

Lap 21: A new fastest lap for Hamilton: 1:43.831. He extends his advantage to 4.5 seconds.

Lap 22: Hamilton sets a 1:43.181 to lead by 5.3 seconds. Schumacher passes Rosberg.

Lap 23: Schumacher spins at Turn 1 while trying to pass Liuzzi. The German pits at the lap's end. Webber pits, too.

Lap 24: Fisichella passes Button. Wurz sets fastest lap - 1:42.154 - on dries. Kovalainen and Button pit, as do the Spykers. Dries are the call - but more rain is said to be imminent.

Lap 25: Kubica pits, as do Trulli, Rosberg, Fisichella, Barrichello and Sato.

Lap 26: Alonso passes Massa - who pits almost straight away. Vettel and Coulthard also stop. Schumacher spins into retirement. The lapped Sutil crashes out.

Lap 27: More rain. Hamilton is slowing significantly and Raikkonen is close behind.

Lap 28: Heidfeld pits.

Robert Kubica has a mechanical problem while leading the race © XPB/LAT

Lap 29: Raikkonen passes Hamilton. Rosberg is pincered by the Renaults and ends up in the Turn 1 gravel. Kovalainen runs wide, too. Rosberg pits at the end of the lap.

Lap 30: Hamilton is getting slower: his tyres appear to be down to the canvas. Yamamoto pits.

Lap 31: Hamilton comes in - and drives into the gravel at the pit entry. He's out. Liuzzi, Webber, Rosberg and Barrichello make more conventional stops.

Lap 32: Raikkonen pits. Kubica leads.

Lap 33: Button, running sixth, posts a 1:40.076.

Lap 34: Leader Kubica pulls off to retire. Button laps in 1:39.901 - he's the quickest driver on the track by some margin.

Lap 35: Alonso laps in 1:39.820. Button passes Vettel for fourth.

Lap 36: Raikkonen posts a 1:39.465.

Lap 37: Button posts a 1:39.055.

Lap 38: Fisichella passes Liuzzi.

Lap 39: Fisichella laps in 1:38.900.

Lap 41: Alonso trails Raikkonen by 7.9 seconds.

Lap 42: Button pits and drops to sixth.

Lap 43: Raikkonen laps in 1:38.880. He leads by 8.5 seconds. Massa is 6.7 seconds behind Alonso, in third.

Lap 45: Fisichella pits from fifth.

Lap 48: The top two set personal bests, but Raikkonen is quicker on 1:38.587. He leads by 8.3 seconds. Kovalainen passes Webber.

Lap 50: Raikkonen laps in 1:38.449 to move 10.1 seconds clear.

Scuderia Toro Rosso celebrate their points finishes with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Sebastian Vettel © XPB/LAT

Lap 51: Raikkonen laps in 1:38.315.

Lap 52: Raikkonen laps in 1:38.285, Massa in 1:37.989.

Lap 54: Massa laps in 1:37.895.

Lap 55: Massa continues to close on Alonso, with a 1:37.560, but is too far back to challenge for position.

Lap 56: Raikkonen wins by 9.8 seconds from Alonso to ensure a three-way title fight in Brazil. Massa sets a definitive fastest lap: 1:37.454.

Vettel is a career-best fourth, from Button, Liuzzi, Heidfeld, Coulthard, Kovalainen and Webber. Hamilton continues to lead the championship table, by four points from Alonso and seven from Raikkonen.