McLaren Turns for the Worse as Fernando Alonso Wins Japanese Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso took his second victory of the season in style, winning back-to-back Grand Prix's by crossing the line first in this morning's 2008 Japanese Grand Prix.

Having done the same thing as the Singapore Grand Prix by claiming that it would be impossible for him to repeat his victory feat, the Spaniard was again at the right place and right time to take the top step on the podium.

At the start of the race, Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen was able to get a good start ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. However, coming up to turn 1, Hamilton out-braked himself and forced Kimi Räikkönen off the racing track.

The McLaren and Ferrari teams were involved in their own battles and that allowed BMW's Robert Kubica and Renault's Fernando Alonso to jump ahead at the chance and took the race lead.

Meanwhile, David Coulthard was the first casualty of the race as he spun on the track with rear suspension failure and a gentle nudge from a Toyota, his Red Bull car shattering before hitting the tyre-wall.

Felipe Massa then led the chase to catch up with Hamilton, while Heikki Kovalainen was settled comfortably in third place behind Robert Kubica and Fernando Alonso.

Massa got alongside Hamilton at turn 11, before running on the chicane and then plunging his nose into the side of Hamilton, putting the Brit into a spin.

As a result, Hamilton had to watch the rest of the field pass by him before he could rejoin the back of the pack.

Massa was then handed a drive-through penalty for this move, while Hamilton was similarly handed a drive-through penalty for forcing Räikkönen wide at Turn 1.

The penalties dropped Massa and Hamilton to the back of the field. However, Massa was on a charge and hungry for any point he could salvage from this disastrous weekend.

He got into a tangle with Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais as the latter came out of the pits, and this incident will be investigated after the race by the stewards, but Ferrari can only keep their fingers crossed that the investigation will not change Massa's eighth-place finish in any way.

Fernando Alonso was later able to jump ahead of Robert Kubica with a well-executed pit strategy. Kubica seemed to be lacking the race pace as he fell further back and was under huge pressure from third-place Kimi Räikkönen. But it could have been a conservative strategy from the Pole, as he later responded and pulled away from the Finn.

Nelson Piquet Jr. drove a quiet but composed race to come in fourth, scoring proud points for the Renault team. Jarno Trulli was the only one left to fly the Toyota flag high as his teammate Timo Glock retired from the race after just seven laps.

McLaren's hopes for scoring any points went up in smoke along with the engine failure of Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn could only wonder what could have been with a good start and taking the third place but it was not to be.

Both Toro Rossos finished sixth and seventh, with Bourdais ahead of Vettel.

Nick Heidfeld was not able to do anything spectacular, and finished in 10th place, ahead of Williams' Nico Rosberg. Rosberg's Japanese teammate, Kazuki Nakajima, was not able to fly the Japanese flag high as he got into a spin at the first lap and had to pit for some repairs. He was subsequently trailing the field and ended the race in last place. 

Robert Kubica had made his displeasure about Hamilton's racing antics clear this weekend with his comments. If anything, the penalty meted out to the Brit will just be yet another reminder to himself that he has to reflect upon his racing tactics.

Victory is one thing, but sportsmanship's another. Formula 1 has no place for dirty racing, and certainly Hamilton does not have to think too hard when he wonders why he has possibly the most number of penalties against him so far.

Hamilton has admitted that he "made a mistake and I paid a price for it," but was unhappy about receiving the same penalty as Felipe Massa when he did not cause anyone to spin with his move, while the Brazilian had put him into a spin.

Perhaps he has a point there, but one must not forget that the victim he forced out (Kimi Räikkönen) had lost out on his good start all because of Hamilton's move.

Räikkönen did not benefit in anyway from Hamilton's penalty, and certainly lost four points thanks to Hamilton's move.

With just two races to go (Grand Prix of China next week and the Brazilian GP on Nov. 2), Ferrari has once again emerged ahead of McLaren in the Constructors' Championship.

Räikkönen scored some vital points for Ferrari, while McLaren failed to get any point out of the Japanese GP. Desperation might just drive Hamilton to commit more silly (and unwarranted) moves on his rivals, and Ron Dennis will certainly need to give a pep-talk to Hamilton if he wants the Drivers' Championship this year for his young star.

  Results
01 F. Alonso Renault 1:30:21.892
02 R. Kubica BMW + 5.200
03 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 6.400
04 N. Piquet Jr. Renault + 20.500
05 J. Trulli Toyota + 23.700
06 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 34.000
07 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 39.200
08 F. Massa Ferrari + 46.100
09 M. Webber Red Bull + 50.800
10 N. Heidfeld BMW + 54.100
11 N. Rosberg Williams + 1:02.000
12 L. Hamilton McLaren + 1:18.900
13 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps
14 J. Button Honda + 1 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams + 1 laps
Did not finish
16 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 46 laps
17 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 51 laps
18 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 58 laps
19 T. Glock Toyota + 60 laps
20 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 67 laps
Times from PlanetF1.com

*Photo: Reuters/Issei Kato

The writer is the editor of F1GPSG.com - the Singapore community fansite for Formula 1.