Winning only his fifth race of the season, Lewis Hamilton has stretched his lead over rival championship contender Felipe Massa by seven points. Pole sitter Hamilton finished the race fifteen seconds ahead of second place Massa while his Ferrari counterpart Kimi Raikkonen took the final podium spot.

After an explosive start Hamilton sustained the lead and quickly opened a three second gap over Raikkonen with Massa chasing the front runners, and ultimately falling behind race leader Hamilton by fifteen seconds once the first pit stops hit.

“Everything just went right this weekend: our car has been simply phenomenal, I made one of my best-ever starts and had perfect balance during the race. I owe so much of that to the guys in the team - both at the track and back home; they did an amazing job so a big thanks to them. I’ve got a seven-point lead in the world championship, but that doesn’t allow me to take anything for granted. It might be another step towards my dream but we’ve still got to stay calm and keep our heads. I just hope we can pull through,” stated Hamilton.

Hamilton held onto his pitch perfect race, while the two Ferrari’s dropped off lap by lap into the shadow of McLaren. Raikkonen made a valiant effort in trying to stay glued to Hamilton, but the silver arrow was able to pull ahead. During the final stages Raikkonen did allow teammate Massa to pass, obtaining those valuable two extra points.

“I was quite strong and then I caught him and I passed him, so that was the good part of the race,” stated Massa in regards to Raikkonen allowing him to pass. “I know what the team expects and I know what we want which are results. It is racing and I have nothing to lose or win in a way. I am driving for the team, so it is a normal situation,” explained a more truthful Raikkonen.

The second McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen lost out to bad luck once more, as he retired around lap 49 after experiencing a puncture a few laps prior while running at fifth position.

Renault had another impressive outing with both cars finishing in the points positions, Fernando Alonso at fourth and Nelson Piquet Jr at eighth. Alonso battled hard earlier on with Kovalainen and was able to fend off the superior McLaren, ultimately seeing his threat end once Kovalainen exited the race. Piquet started from tenth on the grid and was able to finish at the final points paying spot due to a smart pit stop strategy. The collective six points has secured Renault to place fourth in the Constructors Championship after their flurry during the second half of the season.

“It’s was a good race for us today. We were able to show our true level of performance and that we are stronger than BMW and very close to Ferrari. Our result means we have secured fourth place in the constructors’ championship and confirmed our recent progress,” said team boss Flavio Briatore.

With Hamilton earning ten points, Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber officially saw his championship hopes eliminated only scoring three points at sixth position. German teammate Nick Heidfeld did one better and finished fifth adding another four points, leaving the German squad only ten points behind McLaren in the Constructors championship. Heidfeld also recorded a personal milestone of 200 championship points.

Timo Glock brought home the only Toyota past the checkered flag at seventh. Jarno Trulli had an early exit due to an incident with Sebastien Bourdais and had to retire at lap 2.

Toro Rosso had a disappointing race all together with rising super star Sebastian Vettel finishing at ninth after qualifying at sixth. Bourdais, due to his contact with Trulli, was forced to the back of the pack but was able to persevere up to 13th.

“If you start from sixth and eighth and don’t score points then something must have gone wrong. Bourdais’ race was lost at the first corner after a collision with Trulli, but after that some competitive lap times showed the car performance was good. Vettel’s race was badly affected by graining in the early stages of his second stint, which cost him time and we also lost around 3.5 seconds in his pit stop. These factors kept us out of the points. Fortunately, our closest competitors in the Constructors’ classification (Red Bull Renault) are still behind us, so now we hope to finish the season in fine style in Brazil in two weeks time,” said Toro Rosso Ferrari team principal Franz Tost.

Sister team Red Bull Racing brought home both cars with David Coulthard at 10th, despite a one stop strategy, and Australian Mark Webber at a dismal 14th.

Honda continued their struggles as Rubens Barrichello completed the race at 11th and Jenson Button further behind the pack at 16th.

After having one of their best races of the season at Singapore, the Williams drivers were unable to accomplish anything once again with Kazuki Nakajima finishing 12th and talented youngster Nico Rosberg at 15th.

To lead the back of the pack once again was Force India. Giancarlo Fisichella was the only tri-color car to finish the race at 17th. Adrien Sutil dropped out at lap 13 due to gearbox problems.

“We knew our pace was not really good enough today so we just tried to find a different solution to gain places. We went for a one stop strategy but I was really struggling with the grip to start with. In the last 10 laps before the end of the race I was able to do reasonable lap times, but it was a fairly lonely race for me at that point. Anyway, we now go onto Brazil and the last race,” admitted Fisichella.

“It was disappointing not to get two cars to the finish today, but Giancarlo did a good job to get the car home in what’s been a difficult event for us. Adrian was on a two stop strategy but unfortunately had a failure, which we believe was an electronic matter related to the gearbox. Giancarlo was on a one stop strategy and while the first stint on the harder tyre was OK, with the lapping in the second stint he couldn’t really improve his position. We’ll now move onto the final race and hope to be more competitive there,” explained chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne.

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