Hamilton wins in Japan

Tokyo September 30, 2007; Reuters reported that Lewis Hamilton won a wet and turbulent Japanese Grand Prix today and took a big step towards the Formula One world title as his McLaren-Mercedes teammate 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.

Hamilton, 22, survived a collision with Polish BMW driver Robert Kubica to win the chaotic race from Renault driver Heikki Kovalainen and the Ferrari of fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton takes 107 points into the final two races of his sensational debut season in China and Brazil and can wrap up the title next Sunday in Shanghai.

The two-time defending champion Alonso has 95 points and Raikkonen 90 after fighting from the back of the field due to a risky Ferrari tyre choice ahead of the race.

The rain briefly stopped, but set in again four minutes ahead of the warm-up lap, prompting stewards to start the action behind the safety car.

The stewards also ordered teams to use full wet tyres, but Ferrari appeared to use intermediates early on.

Ferrari had to switch after the warm-up lap because the rubber could not deal with the water on the track.

As a result, Raikkonen and Massa dropped to the back of the grid after initially being third and fourth.

Drivers complained about the water but the weather got slightly better to allow a proper race on the 20th lap, with Hamilton handily keeping the lead from Alonso and only relinquishing it later on when he had to refuel.

That put 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.

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.

This incident could have decided the championship in Hamilton's favour as the Brit made no mistake to finally win in 2 hours 34.579 seconds for the 67 laps of 305.721 kilometres.

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.

Red Bull later said that Webber was suffering from food poisoning and was sick in the car, but it was not known immediately whether that led to the collision.

Kovalainen and Raikkonen eventually completed the podium, with David Coulthard (Red Bull), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault), Massa, Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso).