Mclaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton lead from start to finish as he won the Japanese Grand Prix starting in pole position. The young British rookie won his fourth race of the season, ahead of Renault's Heikki Kovalainen and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in a rain soaked, action packed weekend at the Fuji Speedway.
The win comes as a huge bonus for Hamilton and gives a massive boost to his title hopes as challenger Fernando Alonso crashed out of the race, which gives him zero points to Hamilton's 10. Hamilton had a 2 point advantage over team-mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso, which after today's result has gone up to 12 points with only two races remaining.
The race started under treacherous conditions, with rain still pouring on the Fuji Speedway. The first 20 laps were driven in formation behind the safety car. The biggest losers during this period turned out to be the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, who had started on intermediate tyres. They had to make an emergency pit stop to get back to full wet weather tyres, which are the tyres as per norm. They were relegated towards the end in the opening few laps of the race. However, a little bit of luck favoured the scarlet cars as there were many notable retirements during the course of the race. Having said that, there were some pretty good driving moves by both the drivers: Kimi overtook David Coulhard to snatch fourth place on lap 57 and Felipe Massa's move on Robert Kubica towards the end was a nail biter.
Most of the drivers made it to the end of the race on a one pit stop strategy. The most notable retirement would have to be Fernando Alonso who crashed heavily exiting turn five as he tried to make up ground on lap 42. Bits of rear end were deposited all over the track there was no option but to deploy the Safety Car again.
Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso inspired for a while and looked set to give his team a podium finish this year. But the young rookie, on the lap 47, made solid contact with the back of Mark Webber while still behind the safety car and both were out of the race. Webber was in a good position to Challenge Hamilton when this incident ruined it all. It was an unfortunate situation and while Webber will be furious, Vettel will be simply mortified about his costly rookie error.
Although, the conditions were treacherous, the race coming back to Fuji provided a lot more entertainment than most other races this season. Next up is Shanghai, China where Hamilton will look to cement his championship further. Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen have a lot of work to do. Unless Hamilton does not score, the championship is his for the taking.
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