The 20th — and for the foreseeable future, last — Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka circuit threw out a doozy.
The Michelin tyres really did not perform well in qualifying on Saturday, with the Bridgestone tyres showing a one second advantage in the final grid layout.
However Sunday brought lower track temperatures, and a more rubbered in track. This brought the Michelin tyres up to the race pace of the Bridgestone runners.
Alonso made a good move from the start to elevate himself from fifth to fourth after the second corner. Alonso however struggled to pass the obviously slower Toyota of Ralph Schumacher, with Massa and Michael Schumacher after he took the lead on lap 3.
The Toyotas where the first cars to stop, with Massa coming in shortly after due to a puncture, this put Massa out of position after the stop, coming out behind the BMW of Heidfeld. This tied Massa up, and allowed Alonso to stop and come out ahead after his stop.
Alonso, the Renault, and the Michelin tyres started to come good, and he started to make inroads into the lead that Michael had gained.
Albers Spyker car, which he had been complaining of vibrations, rear end exploded. It seemed that a drive shaft had broken and the force destroyed the back end of his car. Fortunately there was not too much debris on the track, and the safety car is not brought out.
Alonso managed to get within 4 seconds of Michael, but it seemed the Ferrari and Bridgestone had started to equalise the gap. Alonso it seemed could not catch the Ferrari.
However it turned out that he did not need to catch Michael, only keep his car on the road. This is because the unthinkable happened, Michael's Ferrari engine had it's first failure in a race since 2001. The engine failure happened not long after 
Michael's second stop. It seemed that the new Ferrari engine may not have been as bulletproof as before. This was, however, the engine's second outing, and Ross Brawn openly stateed that they run them a little closer to the limits towards the end of the season.
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