By DPA
Fuji (Japan) : Lewis Hamilton of Britain won a wet and turbulent Japanese Formula One Grand Prix Sunday and took a big step towards the world title as his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso crashed out.
The first 19 laps took place behind the safety car due to the adverse conditions. It came out again for five laps after Alonso spun off and crashed in the 42nd lap, sending debris all over the track.
The 22-year-old Hamilton survived a collision with Polish BMW driver Robert Kubica, keeping his cool in treacherous conditions to win from Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, both of Finland.
Hamilton takes 107 points into the final two races of his sensational debut season, in China and Brazil. He can wrap up the title next Sunday in Shanghai simply by finishing ahead of Alonso.
The two-time defending champion Alonso has 95 points and admitted that “I need a miracle” to win the title. Raikkonen has 90 after fighting from the back of the field due to a risky Ferrari tyre choice ahead of the race.
A win is worth 10 points.
Hamilton acknowledged that his fourth season win was special because it was the first in the wet and drew him so close to the title such greats like the late Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost won in the past.
“I was thinking of races of Senna and Prost and that I am on my way to achieve something like them,” said Hamilton.
“It was a very very eventful race. I was thinking so many times we should stop,” he said about the conditions, adding that he was “very fortunate” to finish after the collision with Kubica who tried to overtake him.
“It was the longest race of my life,” said Hamilton, as the race over the 67 laps for 305.721 kilometres went over the stipulated time of two hours due to the conditions. Hamilton’s official time was 2:00:34.579.
The rain briefly stopped before the start, but set in again four minutes ahead of the warm-up lap, prompting race stewards to get things going behind the safety car and ordering teams to use so-called “heavy wets” (tyres).
Ferrari said they were never told and used intermediates, which could not deal with the water on the track. As a result, Raikkonen and Massa dropped to the end due to tyre changes after the warm-up lap, down from third and fourth on the original grid.
“The FIA forgot to tell us. It cost us a lot,” said Raikkonen. “It was quite difficult, but at least we got something out of it.”
Drivers complained about awful conditions during the safety car stage, with for instance German Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher saying on team radio it was “complete madness to continue” and Raikkonen saying about the actual race that “I couldn’t see anything and just tried to overtake people.
The proper start came for the 20th lap, with Hamilton handily keeping the lead from Alonso and only relinquishing it later on when he had to refuel.
That saw German Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel in front for a while, and Kovalainen also held first place at times.
Hamilton finally was back on top once the others also made their pit stops, but had a major scare in the 34th lap when Kubica drove into him in a dare-devil overtaking effort, for which the Pole was punished with a drive-through penalty.
“I couldn’t see him in the mirror and my visor was fogged up. I couldn’t see or hear him. It was a risk he didn’t have to take,” said Hamilton.
Alonso had his own collision with Vettel before seemingly losing control in the 42nd lap and crashing into a wall, the incident possibly the culmination of his ill-fated McLaren season.
“I had aquaplaning and the wall was very close to the track there. Obviously things are now more difficult for me,” said Alonso.
Red Bull driver Mark Webber of Australia and Vettel appeared to be in command for team-best second and third-place finishes, but a bizarre collision during the second safety car phase damaged both cars beyond repair.
Kovalainen, who got his best career result, and Raikkonen eventually completed the podium, with David Coulthard (Red Bull), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Massa, Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) also in the points.