Zoom A second classy win of the season for Alonso

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.