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Advantage Hamilton as Alonso crashes


McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has increased the gap between him and team-mate Fernando Alonso to twelve points with just two races to go after Alonso crashed out of the race in the Japanese Grand Prix.

In a tough race in wet conditions throughout Alonso had to finish ahead of Hamilton to close the gap or failing that finish as close as possible to him and let the gap stay small but by crashing out and Hamilton winning the race, Alonso looks set to lose his title to his team-mate.

I think Ferrari's decision to start the race with intermediate tyres instead of extreme weather ones cost them dearly as they had to pit soon after the race started and then re-join the race at the back. The race started under the safety car making the first few races boring to watch but I think that was justified given the weather conditions.

This time it was a good day for Renault as Heikki Kovalainen finished second and Giancarlo Fisichella finished fifth. Kovalainen benefitted from the crash between Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber who were ahead of him at the time of the crash thus promoting him to second and he maintained that position to the end.

I think Webber would have finished on the podium had he not crashed out of the race. He was in a very good position and to make matters worse the crash happened under the safety car which is something you would necessarily expect to happen.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen took the last podium place and his chances like Alonso's of winning the championship are now very slim. He is now 17 points behind Hamilton and he would need to win the next two races and for Hamilton to score less than three points in the two races and Alonso less than 15.

Webber's team-mate David Coulthard had a comfortable race finishing fourth just ahead of Fisichella and Felipe Massa who finished sixth. It was a dramatic race for Massa who ended up with four pit stops and had a drive through penalty imposed after over-taking under safety car conditions.

The last two points positions went to Robert Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi. It was very unusual for the BMW Sauber cars to finish so high in the race when they normally get between fourth to sixth places but Nick Heidfeld actually finished 14th.

The next race is next week in China and Hamilton could wrap up the championship if he beats Alonso or loses no more than a point to him. With the way he raced at Fuji he probably deserves it.

dan
I think at this point only Alonso can take the championship from Lewis but I hope that doesn't happen. Lewis has had a fantastic season and deserves to win the championship and if he does he will make history to being the first rookie to win the championship. I think that will not go that well with Alonso but noone can dispute the fact that Lewis will be deserved winner at the end of the day.
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Wes
Thanks Dan for the comment, I know things can easily change in F1, but I also hope that Lewis will win - good to have a different winner this time.
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mbareboy
...so sad to see Webber crash out, but the stewards are looking into Hamilton's actions during the safety car conditions. Whatever the outcome of the investigations,i feel Hamilton was unsportsmanlike to bunch his team mates together like that in under difficult driving conditions when visibility was next to nothing, he should have known better.
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Wes
I am keen to hear what the stewards will say and if there is any punishment like grid demotion, that could give some advantage to Alonso.
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