Nico Rosberg was the guinea pig second time around, but almost immediately started to set personal best times, prompting a flurry of activity beneath SIC's statuesque architecture. Button, Webber and Massa followed the young German in on the next lap but, when Alonso followed suit on lap 35, his race was undone for good, as a sticking right rear wheelnut cost him almost 20 additional seconds and left him with a mountain to climb if he was to overhaul Schumacher.
Even though Schumacher and Fisichella pitted a couple of laps apart,
Renault's cause was hampered further when the Italian took a cautious approach to his out-lap. With his tyres already up to temperature after a tour of the SIC, Schumacher was already bearing down on Fisichella as the Renault exited the pits, and was ideally placed to take advantage when it ran wide in turn one. Fisichella caught the moment, almost turning back into Schumacher - who wisely took to the kerbs in avoidance - but the die was cast.
The German, supreme in tricky conditions at the best of times, eased away over the next few laps, but Alonso refused to give up easily. Now with his car handling to his liking, the Spaniard had the hammer down and, for the first time since the USGP in July, Renault appeared to have a performance advantage over
Ferrari. Alonso was lapping at around a second a lap faster than the leader, but was still 19 seconds adrift with eleven laps remaining.
The gap was down to 13.7secs by the time the Spaniard caught and passed team-mate Fisichella on lap 48 of 56, and continued to come down as the race headed towards its still inevitable conclusion. Having grabbed everything that had come his way, however, Schumacher was in line for one last bit of good fortune. With two laps to run, and Alonso still just out of striking range, the rain that had blighted the entire Chinese GP weekend returned, but too late to make a difference to the result.
