Kimi Raikkonen sensationally scored his seventh win of the season when he snatched victory from Giancarlo Fisichella on the final lap of the 53 lap Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on Sunday. The Finn swooped around the outside of the Italian as they entered Suzuka’s first corner and having started 17th on the grid, Raikkonen led home a Renault 1-2 to win by 1.633s. World Champion Fernando Alonso was third to give Renault back the lead in the Constructors’ championship.

Michael Schumacher scored two points to retain his third place in the Drivers’ series, securing Ferrari’s similar placing in the Constructors’ series, while Rubens Barrichello finished 12th after a first lap tangle with Takuma Sato resulted in an extra pit stop for a punctured tyre.

After a rain-affected qualifying, several strong drivers were starting at the back of the field, including Michael Schumacher (14th on the grid), Fernando Alonso (16th) and Raikkonen and McLaren teammate Juan Pablo Montoya on row nine, so there was bound to be an interesting race.

Poleman Ralf Schumacher took off into an immediate lead from Fisichella, then Jenson Button, a fast-starting David Coulthard, Mark Webber and Christian Klien. Michael Schumacher was already up to seventh, Alonso eighth and Raikkonen 12th. But Barrichello and Sato went off briefly at the first corner, and Montoya crashed at the end of lap one after an incident with Villeneuve, which brought out the safety car for six laps.

When the safety car went in, Ralf Schumacher eased away at the front but his first pit stop on lap 13 revealed a three stop strategy. Fisichella then took over, easing away from Button and they would stop two laps apart on laps 20 and 22. After the stops were over, Fisichella had a 12s lap which he then extended.

Behind Button, Coulthard held an early fourth place from Webber, before Michael who had overtaken Christian Klien, but then came under pressure from Alonso and Raikkonen. The Spaniard overtook on lap 20 just before he made his first pit stop and both Michael and Raikkonen pitted on lap 26, rejoining in the same order as previously.

By lap 29, Ralf Schumacher had just made his second stop, so Fisichella led by 12s from Button pushed by Webber. Then came the re-formed group of Michael, and then Raikkonen now ahead of Alonso. But Raikkonen overtook Michael on lap 30 going into the first corner, and Alonso did the same three laps later. Raikkonen caught Button and Webber, and Alonso was about to do the same thing when he made his second stop on lap 36.

Fisichella pitted from a 19s lead on lap 38 and on lap 41, Button and Webber pitted, with the Williams driver emerging ahead of the BAR. Michael came in on lap 42 but Raikkonen stayed out until lap 45. When he came out of the pits, he was 5.4s behind Fisichella – third placed Webber was just ahead of Alonso. The new World Champion squeezed past the Williams driver on lap 49 by which time Fisichella’s lead over Raikkonen was just 1.8s.

In the final laps, that lead disappeared altogether and on the last lap, Raikkonen swooped around Fisichella to score a brilliant win. The Renault pair finished second and third, while Webber scored a strong fourth ahead of Button in fifth. Coulthard was sixth from Michael Schumacher in seventh, who was comfortably ahead of his brother in eighth place.