Britain’s Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday but was denied the world championship by title rival Felipe Massa, who finished second.
McLaren’s Hamilton led throughout for a straightforward win but he remains just seven points ahead of Massa, taking the championship to a dramatic final race in Brazil next month.
”A fantastic race, the car was a dream to drive for me,” said a jubilant Hamilton, who moved to the brink of the world title with his ninth career win and fifth this season.
”All weekend we had God on our side as always and the team did a perfect job. The car’s been fantastic all weekend.”
Ferrari’s outgoing champion Kimi Raikkonen was third after conceding second place to Massa late on. Two-time world title-holder Fernando Alonso of Renault was fourth.
”We know what we want as a team and that is what we did. It is normal in this situation,” said Raikkonen, defending the decision to let his teammate overtake.
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld finished fifth ahead of his teammate Robert Kubica, the only other title contender, who finished sixth to end his slim championship hopes.
Hamilton (23) is bidding to become both the youngest and the first black world champion after throwing away a commanding lead in the standings in his rookie season last year.
”This is a completely different situation to last year,” insisted Hamilton, who now has 94 points and Massa 87 after coming home nearly 15 seconds clear.
”Brazil will be very different this time.”
Team boss Ron Dennis said McLaren would be out to make the final race as ”boring” as possible, with Hamilton only needing to finish fifth.
”I think for everybody it will be a very exciting race, but our objective will be to make it boring for everybody,” he said.
Hamilton, who has faced strong criticism of his aggressive racing, may have silenced some of his detractors with his smooth and composed front-running.
He avoided the fireworks seen at the start of the Japan Grand Prix last week in a clean start from pole position, followed by Ferrari’s Raikkonen and Massa.
Hamilton then reeled off a succession of fastest laps to establish a lead that he extended with comfort as Ferrari seemed to struggle with the softer tyres in the first sector of the race.
By the time the leaders began making their first pit-stops, Hamilton led by more than four seconds ahead of Raikkonen followed by Massa, Alonso and McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen.
After another swift stop in which he reduced his front wing setting slightly to counter over-steer, Hamilton flew and delivered several rapid laps that extended his advantage to more than seven seconds.
Raikkonen pressed on to cut into Hamilton’s lead, but Massa, third, was unable to make much impression. Hamilton’s advantage was cut from 7,2 seconds to 6,4 seconds over three laps to lap 28.
But he pulled some of that back before the second round of stops led by Alonso on lap 36. Hamilton led by 8,9 seconds when he and Raikkonen pitted together at the end of lap 38.
By then, McLaren’s Kovalainen had already been forced to come in with a front right wheel puncture that effectively ended his hopes of a good finish.
On exit, Hamilton led ahead of Heidfeld with Raikkonen third, a buffer that was sure to delay Ferrari’s charge in the closing laps.
Hamilton remained unchallenged at the front with a three-second lead and it was left to the Ferrari team to swap places after 49 laps when Raikkonen slowed enough to let Massa past on the back straight.
For Massa, who had struggled to stay third, this meant a vital extra two points in his title bid and will boost his hopes of winning the championship in front of his home fans in Brazil next month.
”It was not a good day, but it is not over. We go to Brazil and I am sure we will be very competitive there again,” Massa said.
”I am going to fight as hard as I can to take the title all the way.” – AFP
