Alonso wins in Japan, Massa and Hamilton collide

Renault's Fernando Alonso won the Japanese Grand Prix on today in a race that will be remembered for a second-lap collision between championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.

Both leading drivers received pit drive-through penalties, and while Ferrari's Massa recovered to finish seventh and gain two championship points, McLaren's Hamilton finished out of the points in 12th.

Hamilton's championship lead is now cut from seven to five points with two races remaining this season, while Ferrari moves seven points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' championship.

"What can I say, it was a bad day, I'll move on to next week," Hamilton said. "I went wide at turn one, it was a mistake, and then Felipe hit me off, I went on the inside and he broke left and hit me pretty hard.

"I lost one point which I guess is damage limitation."

Hamilton made the comments immediately after the race when it appeared Massa had finished eighth and gained a single point. However a post-race stewards' ruling promoted the Brazilian to seventh.

Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais was docked 25 seconds for colliding with Massa on the 51st lap, relegating the Frenchman to 10th and moving the four drivers below him up one place.

Alonso completed back-to-back wins after his victory in Singapore, taking advantage of an incident between Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to move up to second on the opening lap, then passing early leader Robert Kubica of BMW via the first set of pit stops.

Kubica finished second and Raikkonen third. Kubica has now emerged as an outside contender for the title, 12 points behind Hamilton.

Raikonnen — second on the grid — got the better start and slipped ahead of pole-sitter Hamilton in the run to the first corner. The Briton, over-eager to take back the lead, went into the bend too quickly on hard tires in cool conditions, running wide and forcing the Finn to do the same.

That allowed Kubica, Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli and Massa to get ahead of that front-row pair after the first corner.

"Braking into the first corner they both (Hamilton and McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen) hit me, I had nowhere to go," Raikkonen said. "It was Heikki who hit me harder."

The key incident came on the second lap when Hamilton passed Massa at turn 10. The Brazilian, trying to immediately re-pass, went over the curbing at turn 11, and they collided after the apex, with the front right tire of his Ferrari clipping the left rear of the McLaren. Hamilton spun as a result while Massa continued on.

The extraordinary collision between title combatants — reminiscent of previous Japan tangles between championship rivals Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in their heyday — had the Ferrari pit crew punching the air in exultation, as it looked like Massa was set to erode if not overtake Hamilton's championship lead.

Their joy was to be shortlived as stewards quickly slapped drive-through penalties on both drivers: Massa for causing the collision and Hamilton for turn one. That dropped them down to 14th and 15th respectively.

"In my opinion it was a racing incident and we both paid a penalty," Massa said. "That's not right for me, it was completely wrong.

"With two wheels on the gravel I couldn't stop the car, and he pushed me on the gravel."

After the breathless first two laps, most interest in the race centered on whether either of the championship leaders could scramble back into the points, and on the battle for second place between Kubica and Raikkonen.

The Finn and the Pole staged some thrilling wheel-to-wheel racing but Kubica held on to boost his title hopes.

Massa got back into eighth — effectively seventh after the stewards' ruling — on the 65th of 67 laps when he passed Red Bull's Mark Webber. The Australian, with worn tires on a one-stop strategy, defended aggressively on the main straight, almost forcing Massa into the inside fence but the Brazilian got past to earn what could be a crucial two points.

Alonso, who had been frustrated with the season-long struggles of the team with which he won the 2005 and 2006 world championships, was both amazed and delighted with the late-season revival.

"It's difficult to believe," Alonso said, noting Renault did not need the luck it rode in Singapore. "Today we had nothing and we won again — I can't believe it now.

"The feeling I have now is we can do anything."

Kubica was not writing off his championship hopes. It is an unlikely challenge for a driver who has only won one race this year.

"Twelve points behind the leader with two races to go — anything can happen," he said.

Kovalainen was forced to retire with an apparent engine failure on lap 17, leaving McLaren without a point from the race. It was only their second pointless finish of the season after the Canadian Grand Prix.

Renault's Nelson Piquet Jr. joined in the battle for second late in the race before fading to fourth. Toyota's Trulli was fifth, ahead of the Toro Rosso pair of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel.