Hamilton lead cut to just five points

The McLaren driver was on pole for the race, but he made a bad start as he forced Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen off the circuit at turn one when attempting to pass the Finn.

That manoeuvre meant that he dropped down the field and he was also hit with a drive-through penalty.

It got worse for the Briton in the next lap when he spun after a collision with title rival Felipe Massa and the rest of the field streaked past.

Hamilton never recovered and consequently finished outside the points in 12th place, while Fernando Alonso continued his rich vein of form with a second successive victory.

BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica claimed second place to keep alive his own world championship aspirations while Raikkonen finished third.

"Obviously, I am disappointed," said Hamilton. "I am not happy after a result like today, but I'm already getting over it and tomorrow will be another day.

"Disappointingly, I didn't make a great start, but I slipstreamed Kimi and went up the inside. I braked a bit late, but so did everybody.

"A lot of cars went wide at turn one and I just went a bit wider than everyone else.

"But you can't undo the penalty or change today's result.

"On lap two, Felipe went wide and I went up the inside, giving him room, but he tapped me quite hard into a spin."

Ferrari's Massa closed the gap in the driver standings to five points having first finished eighth before profiting from a penalty handed to Sebastien Bourdais to be promoted to seventh.

The championship is destined for a nervy finish with just two races remaining, but Hamilton remained confident of his chances of becoming Formula One's youngest-ever world champion.

"There are positives to take from today," added the 23-year-old. "I've only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers' championship, so it is definitely not over.

"Now, I will forget today ever happened and move forward. We have got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them."

Massa insists that the clash between himself and Hamilton on the Fuji Speedway circuit has done nothing to sour the relationship between the two.

Both drivers felt that the other had been in the wrong during the incident that caused Hamilton to spin, but Massa insists that the respect between the two remains as the battle for the championship heats up.

Hamilton came under fire from Kubica recently after the Pole claimed sthat ome of his manoeuvres on the circuit are too dangerous, but Massa said: "I have a good relationship with Lewis and I will not do anything to destroy something on purpose.

"We are colleagues. We have a good relationship and I admire him as a driver and a person and I am sure he admires me as well."

Massa believes that the collision was unavoidable from his perspective.

"With two wheels on the gravel, I could not stop the car and I was there because he (Hamilton) pushed me there," he said.

"For me, it was a racing incident because he broke late, but then I was a little bit wide in the turn. He put the car inside and I was outside, but then he pushed me a little bit onto the gravel and then I put two wheels on the gravel and he closed and we touched."

Alonso capitalised on the mistakes by the front-runners to climb into the lead and follow up his Singapore success.
It has been a pleasing few weeks for Renault after a frustrating start to the season and the Spaniard hailed his win as a team success.

"I am very happy and proud of my team to have the key to improve all the problems we had," said Alonso. "It is a great job from everybody in the factory and this is the result. These wins are for everybody."