Hamilton Rules The Rain

Lewis Hamilton took a giant step closer to becoming the first rookie to win the Formula One World Driver’s Championship Sunday with a convincing victory in a downpour at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Fernando Alonso saw his title hopes fade to dark, dark gray when he crashed out on Lap 41. He hydroplaned out of a turn and slammed the wall, destroying his McLaren.

Hamilton easily led home Heikki Kovalainen’s Renault and Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari for his 4 th victory of the season, all coming from pole position. Felipe Massa let Raikkonen through with 5 laps to go when he was called in for a pit stop so as not to offend the FIA with team orders. Wow, we all believed that one…

As always in the rain, the rest of the points-paying positions were also surprising. David Couthard’s Red Bull finished 4th, followed by Fisi’s Renault, then Massa, Robert Kubica’s BMW, and finally, Adrian Sutil’s Spyker, scoring their first points of the season. Sutil was elevated to 8th when Toro Rosso’s Tonio Liuzzi was demoted a place for passing Sutil under the yellow flag.

It was a terrible ending for what could have been a glorious day for the Red Bull A and B teams. Mark Webber was in second place behind Hamilton during the second safety car period when the Toro Rosso of Sebastien Vettel unbelievable plowed into the back of his car, taking Webber out of a probable podium finish. Scratch one Red Bull and one Toro Rosso. Coulthard finished a great 4th place, but Liuzzi lost Toro Rosso’s first point of the season when he was demoted for passing Sutil under yellow. At one point in the race, Vettel led for Toro Rosso when the leaders pitted. He was still running a strong third when he took out Webber. Vettel was seen in the pits later with his head buried in his hands, for he knew he had blown his greatest chance yet in F1, and he had taken out Webber’s car for no reason.

Felipe Massa dropped from 3rd to 6th when he pitted to let Raikkonen through. Why Ferrari didn’t just have him make a show of holding up Kimi is unknown , but they gave away 4th place for Felipe when they called him in.

As always, the rain shows off the best drivers, and Japan was no exception. Hamilton, of course, was impressive, but then again, he was leading and didn’t have to bother with the spray. Webber, Vettel, Couthard, and Massa all showed strong, and Raikkonen’s charge through the field was impressive. Also getting noticed was Sutil in the Spyker, who drove a fast, disciplined race. He earned his point.

The Japanese teams fared poorly in their home GP, with the factory Hondas finishing 10th and 11th, and the Toyotas in 13th and 16th. Ralf Schumacher parked his car on lap 55, apparently giving up while running at the back of the pack.

The other strange event of the day also involved Ferrari. The FIA had declared a “wet race”, requiring the teams to start on full wet tires, but apparently, no one bothered to tell Ferrari except via e-mail. It seems Jean Todt’s Blackberry didn’t recognize the FIA’s address, because the Ferraris started on intermediates. They were later called in for drive-through penalties, which may have hurt their chances in the race. Ferrari is complaining, but the fact remains that it was raining heavily, and why they wanted to start on the intermediates is beyond me. They were sliding all over the track, and needed the full wets. Sorry, but I have little sympathy for Ferrari on this one. Every other team seemed to read the e-mail. The FIA has instant communications with the team managers via e-mail directly to their team stands on pit row. No way Ferrari should have missed this one.

Lewis Hamilton’s going to be the next World Champion.