Hamilton moves to brink of title

Fuji, 28-30 September, 2007

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Lewis Hamilton took a huge stride towards becoming the first man to win win the title in his first season with victory in the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Englishman drove a masterful race in treacherous wet conditions as his chief rival and McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso crashed out.

Hamilton leads the Spaniard by 12 points with 20 available in the two remaining races in China and Brazil.

Heikki Kovalainen's Renault was second ahead of the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton's performance, in his first wet Grand Prix, was as controlled and impressive as any he has produced in a scintillating season.

And it means he will win the championship in China next weekend if he beats Alonso, or loses no more than a point to him.

The 22-year-old survived a spin following a collision with Robert Kubica, for which the BMW Sauber driver was penalised, and eased to a brilliant win in an incident-packed race.

The pouring rain at one point put the entire event in doubt, with conditions so poor that the race was started under the safety car.

And there was immediate controversy when Ferrari started their cars on intermediate tyres rather than the extreme wets that had been demanded by race director Charlie Whiting.

Ferrari said they did not know of Whiting's instructions, and soon pulled Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa into the pits to change to the correct tyres.

The safety car stayed out for 19 laps before Whiting decided the track was safe enough to race on.

Hamilton quickly built a three-second lead over Alonso, which the double world champion then stabilised until the two men made their first pit stops.

Alonso, usually outstanding in the wet, came in first, on lap 27, and rejoined in traffic down in sixth place. Hamilton stopped a lap later and came out third.

On new tyres and a heavier fuel load, the two silver cars began to struggle a little, and Hamilton dropped as low as sixth, with Alonso down in 10th, behind rivals who had yet to stop.

Alonso's rear bodywork had been damaged when he was hit by Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and tipped into a spin on his first lap out of the pits.

That will have reduced his car's downforce, and the 26-year-old lost control coming out of the tricky and fast Turn Five and smashed into the wall on the entry to Turn Six.

That brought out the safety car, with Hamilton in the lead ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber and German rookie Sebastian Vettel in the sister Toro Rosso.

But Vettel smashed into the back of Webber while the field was still being controlled, leaving the Australian furious, and promoting the impressive Kovalainen into second, ahead of Massa, the second Red Bull of David Coulthard and Raikkonen.

Raikkonen passed Coulthard around the outside of Turn Five with 11 laps to go, and that put him just a place behind Massa, who was mathematically out of the title race.

Massa came in for a tyre stop on the next lap, promoting Raikkonen into third place, and ensuring he gained an extra point.

The Finn tried hard to pass countryman Kovalainen in the closing laps.

Raikkonen actually passed the Renault on the final lap, but Kovalainen re-passed him immediately and held on to the flag.

That leaves the Finn 17 points adrift of Hamilton in the championship - still technically within reach, but effectively out of contention unless Hamilton has problems in both remaining races.

Coulthard was fourth, ahead of the Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella, and Massa, who won a no-holds-barred battle with Kubica on the final lap.

Toro Rosso's Vitantonio Liuzzi was eighth, picking up his team's first points of the season.

Source: BBC Sport