Panasonic Toyota Racing achieved its first double points finish of the season when Jarno Trulli and Ralf Schumacher finished sixth and seventh respectively in the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

The Toyotas started third and fourth on the grid, their best combined qualifying performance of the year but Fernando Alonso passed Trulli into the first corner and then moved ahead of Schumacher's sister TF106B just before Ralf's first pit stop on lap 13. Jarno had stopped a lap earlier and emerged from the pits fractionally ahead of his team mate.

The Toyota drivers continued to circulate in tandem but lost places to Giancarlo Fisichella, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, who all ran longer second stints.

"I think we can be pleased with what we achieved today," Ralf said. "Obviously after our qualifying performance we were aiming for a podium but the points help us in both the Drivers' and the Constructors' championships. In the manufacturers series we are now just a point behind BMW Sauber and will be giving everything to overhaul them in the season's final race at Interlagos."

Trulli, who finished 3s behind Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren Mercedes, added: "We made decent starts but Fernando just got inside me through Turn 1 and 2. I must say that after yesterday we were hoping for a better result but I had several problems with the traffic which cost me a position and then we had a little change of strategy. We also need to analyse the data because the tyre behaviour changed a little from yesterday, I suspect because the track temperature was a little cooler."

The championship battle swung dramatically in favour of reigning champion Fernando Alonso and Mild Seven Renault when race leader Michael Schumacher's Ferrari suffered an engine failure on lap 37. The only way Schumacher can now win the title is if he wins the final race and Alonso fails to score.

When Schumacher retired, reigning champion Alonso duly took over the lead and won his seventh race of the season, ahead of Felipe Massa's Ferrari and team mate Giancarlo Fisichella in the second Renault. Jenson Button finished fourth for Lucky Strike Honda, ahead of Raikkonen's McLaren and the two TF106Bs. Nick Heidfeld took the final point for the BMW Sauber team.

Senior General Manager, Chassis, Pascal Vasselon summarised: "We are massively disappointed because we were looking to finish on the podium in front of our Japanese fans. It was looking quite realistic until the start of our last stint when Jarno suffered a problem that we have to investigate and unfortunately blocked his team mate.

"We thought we had the pace to reach the podium, particularly after Michael went out. We only ran one or two laps shorter than our rivals in the opening stint, which proves that our qualifying pace was genuine and we hadn't been fuelled light. We will now do everything in our power to finish the year strongly in Brazil in two weeks."