Alonso wins as title duo collide

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Renault's Fernando Alonso took a superb victory in the Japanese Grand Prix as title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa collided in a dramatic race.

Hamilton made a poor start, ran off the road at the first corner and was tipped into a spin by Massa on lap two.

Both were given penalties for different incidents but Massa recovered to take eighth and cut Hamilton's lead to six points with two races left.

Hamilton, his car damaged by Massa, was 12th and out of the points.

The Englishman is still in a strong position but will have to cut out the mistakes that have characterised his season if he is not to lose the championship for the second year in a row.

"What can I say? it was a bad day, I'll move on to next week [in China]," 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."

Massa is not Hamilton's only title rival. BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica is 12 points off the lead and cannot be ruled out.

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

Hamilton's problems began at the very start of the race as he got off the line slowly from pole position in his McLaren and then went too far in trying to make amends at the first corner.

He left his braking too late trying to prevent Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen taking the lead and, with smoke pouring from his locked tyres, took both of them off the track.

The move would earn Hamilton a penalty for forcing another car off the track, but it also demoted him to sixth place, right behind Massa.

The Englishman tried to pass the Ferrari into the Turn 10/11 chicane on the second lap and the two cars ended up colliding.

Massa left his braking too late trying to fend Hamilton off into the initial right-hand part of the corner.

That put him off line on the outside and, trying to retain the place, he dived over the kerbs through the left-handed part and tipped Hamilton into a spin as he rejoined the track.

Hamilton had to sit and wait for the entire field to pass before he could rejoin the race, and he immediately called into the pits for new tyres to replace the ones he had badly flat-spotted at the first corner.

Massa was given his own penalty for causing that collision, and, once they had taken their drive-throughs, the two title rivals ended up at the back of the field - with Massa a few seconds ahead.

The chaos among the drivers of the leading teams left Kubica in the lead but he lost it to Alonso when the Spaniard made his first pit stop a lap later than the Pole.

Alonso said he asked the team to get him out in front of Kubica but doing so meant he had four laps' less fuel than the BMW for the middle stint of the race.

The team lost no time in telling Alonso that he had to "sprint like hell" to win the race.

The double world champion did exactly that, pulling out a lead of more than 12 seconds in his 25-lap second stint.

That put him completely out of Kubica's reach, and the BMW driver was left to fend off Raikkonen.

It was one of the Spaniard's greatest races and secured him and Renault an unexpected second win in a row.

"We were second when we stopped for the first time and I wanted to exit the pits in front of Robert," Alonso said.

"So they had to put less fuel in. I had to open the gap and the car was perfect and I was able to.

"It's difficult to believe as the Singapore win was completely unexpected.

"We had special conditions there with the safety car but today we had nothing and we won again at a circuit which is not good for our [car's] characteristics.

"I cannot believe it right now and back-to-back wins is a great feeling. It is completely amazing."

Raikkonen drove a race that has become typical of him this season - he was anonymous until the final pit stops and then came alive.

The world champion rejoined from his final stop just behind Kubica but, although he pressured the BMW hard for the next few laps, the Pole was able to fend him off and eventually build a small cushion for the last few laps.

Nelson Piquet finished fourth for Renault, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli, the Toro Rossos of Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastian Vettel and Massa taking the remaining points positions.

Massa, the fastest man on the track in the closing stages of the race, lost ground with a spin while trying to pass Bourdais but recovered to grab eighth from Red Bull's Mark Webber on the penultimate lap.

Provisional result of Japanese Grand Prix:

1 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault one hour 30 minutes 21.892 seconds
2 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 5.2 seconds behind
3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari at 6.4secs
4 Nelson Piquet (Brz) Renault at 20.5secs
5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 23.7secs
6 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari at 34.0secs
7 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari at 39.2secs
8 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari at 46.1secs
9 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault at 50.8secs
10 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 54.1secs
11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota at 1:02
12 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes at 1:18.9secs
13. Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda one lap behind
14. Jenson Button (GB) Honda at one lap
15. Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota at 1 lap
R Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari 22 laps
R Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes 16 laps
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 8 laps
R Timo Glock (Ger) Force India-Ferrari 6 laps
R David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 0 laps