Oyama, Japan (Sports Network) - Rookie Lewis Hamilton overcame rain, fog and
the field to capture Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway and put
himself in great position to win the Formula One drivers championship. The
No.2 McLaren driver crossed the finish line 8.377 seconds ahead of Heikki
Kovalainen.
The victory was Hamilton's fourth of the season.
"A very, very eventful race," said Hamilton. "There were so many times when we
thought they should stop the race (because of the conditions)."
With the rain pounding the track, the 67-lap event began with the safety car
on track. Behind him sat pole winner Hamilton and his McLaren teammate
Fernando Alonso. Even with the slow speeds, Felipe Massa spun on the first
lap.
Massa came right into the pits and changed to the "extreme" wet tire, but it
left him at the back of the field when the race finally restarted. On lap
three Raikkonen also made the change to "extremes" but it put him all the way
at the back of the field as well.
The strategical error meant that Ferrari drivers would almost be guaranteed to
be eliminated from the championship. Even with the full-wet tires Raikkonen
spun out on lap six.
The race remained behind the safety car as the conditions continued to
deteriorate. On laps 13 and 14 the Ferraris came back down pit lane and
refilled their fuel tanks so they could reach the end of the race - either 67
laps or the two-hour time limit.
Five laps later the safety came in and the "real" race began. The race lasted
only half a lap before the carnage began. Massa and Alex Wurz collided ending
Wurz's day.
Up front, Hamilton and Alonso held the lead, but Nick Heidfeld and Jenson
Button faded on the restart. Surprising Sebastien Vettel and Mark Webber were
third and fourth, respectively.
Hamilton and Alonso cracked the one minute, 30-second lap mark to build
their lead over third place to 10.9 seconds. The McLaren's would need to build
the lead to about 23 seconds if they wanted to pit and retain the race lead.
By lap 24 Raikkonen had charged to 12th place, but some 43.1 seconds behind
Hamilton. On lap 27, Alonso pitted (11.9 seconds), returning to the track in
eighth place. Hamilton came in one lap later and after 11.6 seconds he
returned in third place.
Hamilton was now in great shape because the two cars in front of him still had
to stop and he had a 4.9-second lead on fourth place Giancarlo Fisichella.
The race leader was Vettel, posting his first ever laps led. He finally gave
up the lead on lap 32 leaving just Webber between Hamilton and the lead.
Robert Kubica and Kovalainen both got around Fisichella and they were
Hamilton's primary challengers. On lap 34 Hamilton was hit by Kubica and both
lost position to Kovalainen. Alonso was also sent into a spin and he too had
to gather himself back up.
"My visor was all fogged up and I didn't see that he was on the inside of me
and I'm very fortunate that I still finished," said Hamilton.
Hamilton got moving but was going slower than normal. Was something wrong with
his McLaren?
Webber pitted on lap 36 and Kovalainen, who still had to make one more stop,
was the new race leader.
Thirty laps to go and Raikkonen was racing his heart out trying to stay in the
championship picture. He was seventh, 19.5 seconds behind the leaders.
The leaders all pitted and Kubica was penalized for the incident with Hamilton
leaving only Fisichella in front of Hamilton with 28 laps remaining. Hamilton
was just 2.2 seconds behind Fisichella. Fisichella pitted on lap 41 and
Hamilton inherited the lead and control of the championship.
Hamilton's teammate and two-time defending champion Alonso hit the wall in
turn five one lap later and was out of the race and maybe out of the title
chase. There was debris all over the track and the safety car came out to slow
the field.
While the safety car was still out, third-place Vettel hit second-place Webber
and both cars were out of the race in dramatic and tragic fashion. It moved
Raikkonen back in a scoring position in seventh place.
Lap 47 saw the safety car come in and the race restarted with four more laps
to make the race "official" and up to 20 more laps if they went the full
distance. Raikkonen was flying and up to fifth place.
Hamilton's lead over Kovalainen was 4.239 seconds on lap 50. Two laps later
the margin was more than six seconds. From there he cruised to the checkered
flag without incident or challenge. Raikkonen got up to third place. David
Coulthard, Fisichella, Massa, Kubica and Adrian Sutil completed the points-
scoring positions.
With Alonso's crash, Hamilton will take a 12-point lead over his teammate to
the next race. Raikkonen is 17 points behind the rookie with just two events
on the schedule.
"Towards the end I just took it easy because it was so wet and my tires were
getting old," said Hamilton.
Race No.16 of 17 is scheduled for Sunday, October 7th in Shanghai, China.