Ferrari's Michael Schumacher won the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday to tie Renault's Fernando Alonso in the race for the season driver's championship.

Beginning in wet conditions, Schumacher maneuvered his way up from a sixth place start, getting ever faster as the track dried.

"It's quite a miracle we are there," said the German, who will retire at the end of the season.

Defending champion Alonso started in pole position, but lost the lead on the 31st lap. He struggled back to finish second, just ahead of teammate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Seven-time world champion Schumacher now shares the drivers standings lead with Alonso on 116 points with two races remaining this season, although Schumacher has seven wins to Alonso's six.

It was the 91st career win and the fifth in the last seven races for Schumacher.

After morning showers drenched the track, the rain paused for the start with both Renaults on the front row for the third time this season.

Moving smoothly away from the field, Alonso had a gap of 11.5 seconds over Fisichella after 10 laps, while Schumacher languished in fifth, more than 20 seconds behind the leading trio.

After the first pit stops from laps 20 to 22, Alonso maintained a lead of 10 seconds but he was clearly in trouble with his tires, losing seconds with each lap.

"I had those nine or ten laps, I was completely off the pace," said Alonso. "And I think the race finished there."

After both Schumacher and Fisichella pitted, Schumacher found himself bearing down on Fisichella as the Renault driver emerged from the pit lane, passing him on the inside of the first turn in a sparkling maneuver with two wheels on the grass.

Fisichella made a move to try to keep the inside line but it was too late. He and his car were too slow to react, and Schumacher was past and into the lead.

"We found the right moment to change to dry tires and we had enough of a gap to drive it safely home," Schumacher said.

"It was clear that turn one would be difficult, I knew from practice. I was thinking it could be an issue with Giancarlo and there it was," he said.

Fisichella said he knew there was nothing he could do.

"Michael was coming and he overtook me easily," Fisichella said.

Alonso dropped to 53 seconds behind the lead when he made a premature second pit stop, but fought his way his way back to overtake Fisichella on lap 48 and regain second, 13.7 seconds back of Schumacher with eight laps to go.

Alonso whittled the gap to 3.1 seconds by the end, but Schumacher already had the victory in hand.

More than a minute behind, positions fourth through eighth were a close race decided in the last turn.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was running fourth but Honda's Jenson Button and McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa overtook him, after which Honda's Rubens Barrichello collided with Heidfeld from behind.

Button finished fourth, de la Rosa fifth, Barrichello sixth, Heidfeld seventh and Mark Webber eighth. McLaren's Kimmi Raikkonen had been running third, but exited the race in the 18th lap with car trouble.

There is just a week break before the next-to-last race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix

In Italian : Cina: Schumi aggancia Alonso!

La cronaca, con il via su tracciato bagnato per la pioggia caduta fino a un'ora prima della corsa. Regolare la partenza con Alonso e Fisichella in testa già dalla prima curva, mentre dietro Raikkonen infilava le due Honda e Schumi restava tranquillo in sesta posizione. Dopo 13 giri il tedesco aveva passato Barrichello e Button salendo in quarta piazza con Raikkonen che, proprio per le diverse condizioni del circuito, scavalcava Fisichella mettendosi a caccia di Alonso.