While the two championship protagonists made a mess of the 67-lap Japanese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso steered clear of trouble to take his 21st career win from Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen. While it was a tremendous drive from Alonso once again, the race will be remembered for the lap one antics of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa...
Hamilton made a poor start from the pole position and vigorously chopped across team-mate Heikki Kovalainen on the long run to the first turn with Kimi Raikkonen on the outside. Hamilton missed his braking point as he looked to regain lost ground to Raikkonen and ran wide forcing Finn to the outside of the circuit. This allowed Kubica and Alonso through to take the lead.
Having dropped down the order Hamilton battled hard with Massa for fifth position, taking the position into turn ten. The Brazilian ran wide at the tight turn 11 and launched his F2008 across the chicane before making contact with the McLaren. Massa continued but Hamilton had been tipped into a spin and dropped to the rear of the field.
Massa would get a drive through penalty for the incident while the championship leader would also get a penalty for running wide and compromising Raikkonen – who had seized the lead off the line -at the start of the race. Both Hamilton and Massa did not have their finest of days...
While Hamilton choked and Massa saw red, Kubica calmly picked up the pieces and led the opening laps of the race from Singapore race winner Alonso, but it was the Renault driver that emerged from the first round of pit stops ahead and the Spaniard would then pull clear of the BMW Sauber driver to take the chequered flag by a comfortable five second margin.
It was a great result for the Renault team, who had been battling with Toyota for fourth position in the constructors’ championship, as Nelson Piquet had by far his strongest Grand Prix to date from 12th position on the grid to finish a fine fourth.
Kubica’s second position closed him to within seven points of Massa and while the Pole had no answer to the pace of Alonso, it was another solid drive to keep BMW Sauber in the hunt for the constructors’ championship. The Hinwil-based team are now just seven points behind McLaren and 14 behind Ferrari.
Kimi Raikkonen pushed hard for Ferrari after losing ground on the opening lap courtesy of Hamilton. The defending champion attempted several passes on Kubica for second position in the closing stages of the race but could never complete the manoeuvre. Still, with Hamilton finishing out of the points and Heikki Kovalainen’s Mercedes V8 failing whilst running third, Ferrari regain the lead in the constructors’ championship by seven points with two rounds remaining.
Jarno Trulli carried the flag for Toyota today as Timo Glock was forced to retire his TF108 early in the race following an off. Trulli lost out to Piquet in the pit stops but still finished in fifth position, ten seconds clear of Sebastien Bourdais in the leading Toro Rosso Ferrari.
Sebastian Vettel finished seventh in the second STR3 while Massa recovered to take the chequered flag in eighth position. The Brazilian, along with Bourdais, was under investigation following contact late in the race.
Heading to the first turn, Bourdais took the inside line as he defend his position from Massa after emerging from the pits on lap 50. Massa ducked to the left and drove around the outside of the right-handed first turn but also moved across and made contact with Bourdais’ STR3. Both were able to resume the race but astonishingly the stewards gave the French Toro Rosso racer a 25 second post race penalty that dropped him to tenth position overall and out of the points.
Mark Webber used a one-stop strategy to finish ninth in his Red Bull Renault while team-mate David Coulthard suffered a suspension failure at the start of the race and crashed heavily following light contact with Piquet’s Renault at the first turn. While it was an early exit for Coulthard, Webber was later promoted to eighth position following Bourdais’ penalty - a small boost for the team as they battle with Toro Rosso in the constructors’ championship.
Nick Heidfeld finished tenth in the second BMW Sauber ahead of Nico Rosberg in his Williams Toyota. Hamilton was unable to recover from the early race dramas and finished 12th ahead of the one-stopping Honda duo of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button. Kazuki Nakajima was the final runner in 15th position in the second Williams after he struck the out-of-control Coulthard on lap one and was forced into the pits prematurely for a new front wing.
Adrian Sutil suffered a right rear puncture and was forced to retire while Giancarlo Fisichella was soon out of the race in the second Force India Ferrari with a gearbox problem to make it five retirements from the field of 20.
Fernando Alonso heads to the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend on the back of two impressive wins, while Hamilton retains his title lead over Massa by five points despite a costly error this afternoon in Japan. Bourdais meanwhile must be wondering how and why he received a penalty for simply racing...