FERNANDO ALONSO has been through a lot in the past four months and he must have wondered whether the gods had it in for him and his Renault team’s bold bid for a second successive world drivers’ championship. It has been a cruel tale of races lost, debatable rules decisions against them and plain bad luck.

But on a beautiful sunny day before a packed 160,000-strong crowd at Suzuka, it all came good in an instant for the young Spaniard as he whipped round the Degner Curve on the 37th lap of the Japanese Grand Prix and could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Up ahead there was white smoke, the first sign of what he would later call his “gift from God”. Michael Schumacher’s bright red Ferrari was in its death throes, spewing first a trace, then a billowing cloud of white smoke, ending not just his race, but in the German’s mind, his title hopes, too.

Alonso, who had started from fifth on the grid and fought his way to be a distant second behind Schumacher — a reflection of the superior Bridgestone dry-tyre package on the Ferrari — at first thought, it was one of the Spyker Midland back-markers blowing up and he immediately braked to avoid oil on the track.

But, as he came upon the stricken car with his Renault R26 still hammering along at more than 100mph, he realised it was Schumacher retiring for the fiftieth time in his 248th race and for the first time because of engine failure in a Ferrari since the French Grand Prix in 2000.

Alonso is a sporting fellow but he could hardly help himself and, as he cruised past, his gloved left hand rose from the steering wheel and he pumped his fist with unbridled joy. At last his luck had turned. After the agony of giving Ferrari the Chinese Grand Prix on a plate a week ago, courtesy of a Renault tyre-strategy blunder, it was time for the gift to be returned.

The popular young man from Oviedo, who lives quietly on the banks of the Cherwell in Oxford, was beside himself as he came up to the finish 15 laps later. He was pumping the warm Suzuka air even as he exited the Casio Triangle chicane for the last time and then he wiggled his car from side to side in the pit straight in a gesture of pure jubilation.

Having gone into the race tied on points with Schumacher but behind on race wins, and having been looking down the barrel of yet another win for the seven-times world champion, which would have left Alonso facing the last race in Brazil in two weeks two points behind, the Spaniard has now leapt into a ten-point lead. All he needs is an eighth-place finish at Interlagos, should Schumacher win there, to secure the title and finally kill off Ferrari’s fightback in the second half of the season.

Alonso spoke like the true sportsman he is after the race, never trying to convince anyone that he would have won had Schumacher not retired. “It’s a complete surprise, so the taste of victory is even better because in China we were complete favourites and everything seemed so easy and we lost the race. The same thing happened here for Ferrari, so you never know,” he said.

While others, including Schumacher, concluded that the championship is now over, Alonso was having none of it. “You have to finish the races,” he said, “and looking at the championship, these ten points for sure are very important, but, as we all thought, the championship will be decided in Brazil. You never know what is going to happen there. The same thing can happen to us [as happened to Ferrari here], so we just need to be really safe and don’t take too many risks.”

The contrast between the joy among the yellow-and-blueuniformed Renault mechanics and their red-shirted Italian rivals could not have been more stark. It has been a long time this season since the Ferrari garage has featured men slumped in their chairs, arms folded, chewing on their fingernails. This was the most painful defeat, all the more so perhaps because of their hero’s impending retirement. This time, there were no team photos after the race or celebratory singalongs for the proud Italian team, just a quick “thank you” from Schumacher, who was on his way to his private jet within minutes of the race finishing.

Second place behind Alonso went to Schumacher’s compliant Brazilian team-mate, Felipe Massa, who started from pole and then let the German breeze past him on the pit straight at the beginning of lap three. Massa made no apologies for doing so afterwards, openly admitting that he was happy to do whatever was necessary to assist in Ferrari’s battle for the championship.

Behind Massa came an emotional Giancarlo Fisichella, who dedicated his performance in the race to his closest childhood friend, who died last week of a heart attack. Jenson Button was in the points for a fifth consecutive race for Honda, finishing fourth from seventh on the grid. But his car is still not a good enough machine to be able to mix it with the Ferraris and Renaults.

SUZUKA RESULTS

1, F Alonso (Sp, Renault) 1hr 23min 53.413sec; 2, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) at 16.1sec behind; 3, G Fisichella (It, Renault) 23.9; 4, J Button (GB, Honda) 34.1; 5, K Raïkkönen (Fin, McLaren Mercedes) 43.5; 6, J Trulli (It, Toyota) 46.7; 7, R Schumacher (Ger, Toyota) 48.8; 8, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber) 1min 16sec; 9, R Kubica (Pol, BMW Sauber) 1:16.9; 10, N Rosberg (Ger, Williams Cosworth); 11, P de la Rosa (Sp, McLaren); 12, R Barrichello (Br, Honda); 13, R Doornbos (Neth, Red Bull-Ferrari); 14, V Liuzzi (It, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Cosworth); 15, T Sato (Japan, Super Aguri-Honda) all 1 lap behind; 16, T Monteiro (Por, Midland-Toyota) 2 laps; 17, S Yamamoto (Japan, Super Aguri-Honda) 3 laps.
Not classified: 18, S Speed (US, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Cosworth) 48 laps completed; 19, M Webber (Aus, Williams) 39; 20, M Schumacher (Ger, Ferrari) 36; 21, D Coulthard (GB, RedBull-Ferrari) 35; 22, C Albers (Neth, Midland-Toyota) 20. Fastest lap: Alonso 1:32.676 (lap 14).

QUALIFYING POSITIONS: 1, Massa 1min 29.599sec; 2, M Schumacher 1:29.711; 3, R Schumacher 1:29.989; 4, Trulli 1:30.039; 5, Alonso 1:30.371; 6, Fisichella 1:30.599; 7, Button 1:30.992; 8, Barrichello 1:31.478; 9, Heidfeld 1:31.513; 10, Rosberg 1:31.856; 11, Raïkkönen 1:30.827; 12, Kubica 1:31.094; 13, de la Rosa 1:31.254; 14, Webber 1:31.276; 15, Liuzzi 1:31.943; 16, Albers 1:33.750; 17, Coulthard 1:32.252; 18, Doornbos 1:32.402; 19, Speed 1:32.867; 20, Sato 1:33.666; 21, Monteiro 1:33.709; 22, Yamamoto no time.

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: Drivers: 1, Alonso 126pts; 2, M Schumacher 116; 3, Massa 70; 4, Fisichella 69; 5, Raïkkönen 61; 6, Button 50; 7, Barrichello 28; 8, J P Montoya (Col, McLaren Mercedes) 26; 9, Heidfeld 23; 10, R Schumacher 20; 11, de la Rosa 18; 12, Trulli 15; 13, Coulthard 14; 14, J Villeneuve (Can, BMW Sauber) 7; 15, Webber 7; 16, Kubica 6; 17, Rosberg 4; 18, C Klien (Austria, RedBull-Ferrari) 2; 19, Liuzzi 1. Constructors: 1, Renault 195; 2, Ferrari 186; 3, McLaren Mercedes 105; 4, Honda 78; 5, BMW Sauber 36; 6, Toyota 35; 7, Red Bull-Ferrari 16; 8, Williams Cosworth 11; 9, Scuderia Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1.

FINAL RACE: Brazilian GP: Oct 22 (Interlagos).

HOW THE CROWN WILL BE CLAIMED

• Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso go into the final grand prix in Brazil with 116 points and 126 points, respectively. Each has seven race wins
  
  
• Schumacher must win at Interlagos and Alonso must fail to finish or fail to score a point for Schumacher to take the title on countback with eight wins to Alonso’s seven
  
  
• Whatever Schumacher does, so long as Alonso scores one point — eighth place — then Alonso wins
  
  
• If both drivers fail to finish, Alonso wins
  
  
• The drivers’ championship has been clinched in the final race of the season 23 times in 56 seasons
  
  
• The smallest winning margin came in 1984, when Niki Lauda took the title with just a half-point advantage over team-mate Alain Prost