Fernando Alonso worked his magic again as he completed the 67-lap Japanese (at Fuji Speedway) grand prix at the top of the podium, with Robert Kubica finishing second and Kimi Raikkonen, finally ending his point drought, took third.

“It’s still difficult to believe what we have done today! Winning in Singapore was unexpected, but we benefited from special conditions. Today we won again on a circuit that was not supposed to suit us. The team has really done a remarkable job to fight back this season and we are now the third strongest team. It’s unbelievable and I am extremely happy this evening,” said Alonso.

Alonso’s teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. jumped from 12th on the grid to take fourth place and adding valuable five points to Alonso’s ten, solidifying Renault’s lead over Toyota in the constructor’s championship. Since the halfway mark (Hockenheim) on this 18 grand prix schedule Renault have quietly inched their way to fourth in the constructor’s championship. The French based squad have scored 51 points from the German GP to now, making them the second highest point getter right behind Ferrari since that race.

“I am very happy as this is a superb result for the team, Fernando, Nelson and Renault. The victory is well deserved: Fernando and Nelson had great drives, our strategy worked wonderfully and after our difficult start to the season I want to thank all the members of the team for their efforts. We had said that we could come back to the top and we confirmed that here today,” mentioned team boss Flavio Briatore.

All was not well with the championship contenders Lewis Hamilton, who finished 12th, and Felipe Massa, who took 7th position. Pole sitter Hamilton made a poor start from the grid and cut in front of his teammate Heikki Kovalainen right before the first turn. With Raikkonen on the outside of Hamilton missing his brake point he forced the Finn to go off track. This allowed Alonso and Kubica to seize the opportunity as they went past the mess to become the front runners early on. Hamilton later received a drive-thru penalty for forcing Kimi wide. Hamilton’s teammate, Kovalainen would later retire from the race at lap 16 from third position due to an engine failure, resulting in zero points for McLaren.

After the first turn incident, Massa and Hamilton battled hard at fifth. At turn 11 a mistake from Massa forced him to rocket through the chicane and would hit Hamilton which demanded an early pit stop from the British ace. Massa as well got a drive-thru for making contact with the McLaren.

“Obviously, I’m not happy after a result like today’s – 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,” said Hamilton.

Race leaders Kubica and Alonso had a close fight during the initial stages, with the Polish native keeping Alonso at bay. However after the first pit stops Fernando managed to come ahead of Kubica and eventually took the checkered flag. The other BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld had a dismal run as he finished ninth, after an even weaker performance during qualifying, from the 16th position.

Jarno Trulli added four points in trying to sustain the 16 point gap created by Renault for the fourth spot in the constructor’s ranking. Timo Glock’s misfortune came early at lap 6 when he pulled his Toyota into the pits for a DNF.

The Toro Rosso team had a bitter sweet race. Sebastian Vettel continued to impress by taking sixth position and scoring points in the last five races and has put his Toro Rosso team ahead of sister team Red Bull Racing in the point standings. Yet controversy arose at the end of the race when Sebastien Bourdais was given a 25 second penalty dropping him from fifth position to 10th. After exiting the pits Bourdais was about to go into turn one, when Massa came and both made contact. In a shocking and ignorant move the race stewards gave Bourdais the penalty. “The start seemed like a big mess, but fortunately I survived it. The incident with Massa? I was coming out of the pits, he turned in, I was on the kerb and there was nowhere else I could go and I was racing him for position,” states Bourdais.

Mark Webber and Red Bull Racing enjoyed solace in the last point paying position with the Aussie finishing 8th. Teammate David Coulthard was the victim of the first lap debacle and crashed hard into the wall, ending his race for good.

Another victim of the first turn incident was Kazuki Nakajima, who eventually finished 15th. Though he did not share the same fate as Coulthard, Nakajima wanted to give a better show for his home grand prix, but was forced to the back of the pack early on. Nico Rosberg had an awful start from the grid, but with a one stop strategy took home 11th.

Struggling Honda started 17th (Rubens Barrichello) and 18th (Jenson Button) on the grid ahead of a weaker Force India and were able to bring both their cars across the finish line. Barrichello and Button finished 13th and 14th respectively.

Both Force India cars failed to finish the race. Adrian Sutil retired at lap 8 from 10th position at the time, due to a tire failure. Giancarlo Fisichella had gear box problems and left at lap 21. “Today was a shame for the team as I think we had every chance of doing very well. Adrian had a good first lap and on a two stop strategy it was looking promising for the rest of the race. Unfortunately he picked up a puncture, which was the end of his race. Giancarlo was also putting in a strong performance despite some contact in the first corner, which damaged his nose and gave some understeer as a result. He was on a one stop strategy, but had a gearbox failure just before the midpoint of the race. While it was a great shame for the team, it’s good to see a strong race pace once again,” chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne.

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