Japanese Grand Prix: Love Is a Losing Game As Karma Prevails—Almost!

As Lewis Hamilton discovered in Shanghai last year, a clumsy mistake can prove costly in the race for the drivers’ world championship.

It seems somewhat lucky that his main rival is a man you expect to trip up on a regular basis, and a man who yet again did not fail to deliver this expectation. The driver of course being Felipe Massa, who instead of capitalising effectively on Lewis Hamilton’s misfortune, left the Japanese track still five points distant of his nemesis.

Today’s Grand Prix showed a coincidental chain of karma, which left all those who caused avoidable accidents being given deserved penalties for their dramatic errors in judgement.

Firstly, Hamilton stubbornly forced Kimi Raikonnen off the track into turn one, in a move reminiscent of Michael Schumacher’s aggressive and controversial first-corner tussles. Then Hamilton was stopped in his tracks by a disastrous attempt by Felipe Massa to overtake his competition, that being the moment Massa showed the flaw we have all seen on a regular basis—that of consistency.

Finally, to continue to chain of karma, Massa was then impeded by a pit lane-emerging Sebastian Bourdais who belted straight into the blood red body work of the weakened Ferrari.

All those at fault were given penalties, deserved penalties and penalties that proved costly for each driver. Hamilton will almost certainly learn from his misjudgement into turn one after holding his head in shame and admitting that his bonsai move could have been carried out in a more controlled manner, thus reducing the need for a drive-through penalty.

Sadly, the one driver who didn’t receive any benefit from either of the incidents was unexpected Ferrari No. 2, Raikonnen.

The race was won by Fernando Alonso in a follow-up spirited drive to accompany his glory under the bright lights and dark skies of Singapore. But, really, it should have been Raikonnen’s for the taking; a result ripped from him after his stunning start from the front row was destroyed by Hamilton’s fatal error.

In the end, the first corner incident had an immediate effect on both the race outcome, and, almost unnoticed, the tightly fought constructors' title. Raikonnen’s pace was not evident throughout, but one has to wonder that if he had kept the lead gained into turn one, would he have scampered off into the distance, leaving Alonso settling for what would have been an appreciated step on the second level of the podium?

Maybe, just maybe, the advantage of today’s events lies with McLaren in the battle for the top team in the illustrious field of quality teams and drivers.