Alonso Completes Renault's Rise
Formula One champion Fernando Alonso won an incident-packed Chinese Grand Prix to end his season in style and hand his team Renault the constructors' title.
The victory was Alonso's seventh of the year, matching Kimi Raikkonen's tally, and it ended a campaign marked by the two drivers' neck-and-neck rivalry, which brought a refreshing change to the sport after years of Ferrari domination.
After a gruelling 19-races, the most ever in a season, Renault completed the year with 191 points to McLaren's 182.
McLaren had been the hot favourite to pip its rival after winning the previous six races, but Alonso made sure Renault took the honours with a workmanlike drive that made a mockery of claims that McLaren had the fastest car.
It was a remarkable achievement for Renault, whose boss Flavio Briatore has rebuilt the team from back-of-the-grid strugglers in four years.
Raikkonen put up a fight in finishing second, with Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota third.
Alonso's teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, finished fourth.
Australia's Mark Webber finished seventh to complete the season 10th in the drivers' championship.
"It has been a fantastic season," Alonso said.
"Winning the constructor's title was not crucial for us but it is very important.
"All weekend has been perfect. This was probably my easiest race this year. I'm a little bit frustrated at only winning seven as the car could easily have won 10 or 11."
Raikkonen congratulated Renault and Alonso but he couldn't hide his disappointment.
"Renault were simply too quick today," he said.
"I don't really know why.
"We'll try again next year. I'm a bit disappointed I could not catch Fernando, but that's racing."
Ferrari, after dominating the sport for so long, finished third in the constructors' race, with 100 points, largely due to regulation changes with which the team failed to cope.
Lead driver, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, blew his chance of ending a miserable season on a high, crashing out twice.
The German star, 36, who qualified sixth, was forced to start from the pit lane in the spare car after a dramatic collision with Minardi driver Christijan Albers in the warm-up lap.
Then he inexplicably crashed onto the gravel a third of the way through the race, when he was following the safety car and driving slowly.
The mistake could easily have cost him third place in the drivers' standings, but rival Juan Pablo Montoya in a McLaren was forced to retire soon after Schumacher.
In a dramatic race, the safety car was forced to come out twice - first on lap 20, when a broken drain cover had to be cleared from the track, and then nine laps later, when Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan totalled his Jordan.
Alonso made a perfect start from pole and he had opened an unassailable lead by the time he made his first pit stop, on lap 19, with McLaren's day made worse by a poor second pit stop from Raikkonen.
Alonso took the chequered flag to wild celebrations in the Renault pit.
At 24, he is Formula One's youngest world champion.
The Spaniard has been a model of consistency this year, absorbing the relentless pressure with good humour and panache to seal the drivers title at the third-last race in Brazil.
Rubens Barrichello, in his last drive for Ferrari before moving to BAR-Honda next year, capped a forgettable day for the Italian team, finishing 12th.
While Shanghai will be remembered for Renault taking the world title, it has also stirred emotions as the last race for Minardi, Jordan and Sauber in their present formats.
Red Bull has taken over Minardi, which will be known as Squadra Toro Rosso next season, while Jordan will be run by Russian businessman Alex Shnaider as the rebranded Midland F1.
Sauber was bought out by BMW.
For China, the race again gave the emerging market a taste of the speed, money and glamour that go hand-in-hand with Formula One, but ticket sales were down on the inaugural race last year.