MOTOR SPORT FORMULA ONE CHAMPIONSHIP:LEWIS HAMILTON edged closer to the Formula One title after taking a straightforward victory at a pedestrian Chinese Grand Prix yesterday.
The Briton will now take a seven-point championship lead to the final round in Brazil after closest rival Felipe Massa could only finish a distant second, taking that place after team-mate Kimi Raikkonen allowed the struggling Brazilian to pass him in the closing stages.
In recent races, Hamilton has often been his own worst enemy, incurring the wrath of race stewards in Spa during a bruising battle with Kimi Raikkonen for the lead, a move which robbed him of victory.
At Monza he was guilty of poor judgment again, opting for the wrong tyres in qualifying at a rain-soaked Monza. And in Japan, last weekend, he was penalised again for an over-zealous first-corner move on Raikkonen which left him out of the points and stranded in 12th. In mid-season the Briton had enjoyed a 15-point championship lead.
Arriving in China that advantage had been cut to just five points and even his fellow drivers were castigating him for his aggressive driving style and saying he was fragile under pressure.
If, in interviews over the matter, Hamilton has seemed nervy, he showed no signs of fragility on the track in Shanghai. While Ferrari's Massa and Raikkonen struggled with set-up, Hamilton powered to a convincing pole position on Saturday and yesterday, when it really mattered, he put in a flawless performance.
From the start, the Briton simply drove away from the tricky looking Ferraris of Raikkonen and Massa, in second and third respectively, opening up a two-second gap to Raikkonen within the first three laps.
It had the taste of a rout.
Raikkonen though raised his own game and kept pace, dragging the seemingly out-of-sorts Massa with him.
But, with Hamilton always looking capable of upping the ante if required, it was never going to be anything other than a case of the Ferrari pair hanging onto the quicker McLaren's coat-tails. For the Italian team it became an exercise in damage limitation, mostly centred around just when Raikkonen would lift off the accelerator and let Massa through for second place.
That move eventually came on lap 50 of the 56, Massa sweeping past as his team-mate pulled off the racing line and slowed dramatically. By that stage Hamilton had a 16.6 second advantage over his title rival and was already backing off to save his car before the run to the chequered flag.
Afterwards, a visibly deflated Massa admitted that he had been unable to live with Hamilton's pace all weekend.
"We saw that Lewis was stronger at the beginning and he started pulling away two or three tenths a lap which made his race much more comfortable," he added. "We were driving on the limit trying to reduce the gap but it wasn't possible. Today unfortunately Lewis had the better car for the whole weekend."
Salvaging what he could from a poor afternoon, Massa clung to Ferrari's eclipse of McLaren in the constructors' championship.
"At least we finished second and third. For the drivers' championship it wasn't fantastic but for the constructors' championship it was very good," he said of the 11-point advantage Ferrari now have in the constructors' battle.
Inevitably, questions will be asked about the ease with which Massa passed Raikkonen for second place but the Finn was matter-of-fact about allowing his team-mate past.
"We know what we want as a team and that's what we did and it's normal in this situation," Raikkonen insisted.
"I had a very good car today and it was handling very nicely but unfortunately it wasn't fast enough when we needed it.
"We finished second and third today so next time we hope to do better," the Finn added.
"I know what the team expects and I have nothing to lose or win in a way and I'm driving for the team and I was pretty happy with how things went in the race apart from that we couldn't challenge the McLaren today."
The top three were untroubled throughout a largely incident free race.
The lack of the spectacular left Fernando Alonso, an unexpected winner in Singapore and Japan, to push through for fourth, the Spaniard again underlining the progress his Renault team have made since mid-season.
He was followed to the flag by the BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica, whose outside-chance late title charge was ended on Saturday by a poor qualifying session that saw him start 12th.
Kubica's sixth place left Timo Glock to take seventh for Toyota, with Renault's Nelson Piquet Jnr taking the last point on offer.
Hamilton's victory pushes him one step closer to the championship that so spectacularly eluded him last year, a catalogue of late-season errors and mechanical failures allowing Raikkonen to slip through and claim the title.
"All weekend we have had God on our side as always," Hamilton said afterwards.
"This is another step towards the championship and my dream and my team's dream," he said. "The team deserve it, we have worked very, very hard through the season.
"Going to Brazil it will be a different situation to last year and we know we have to do a good job. It will be tough. These two will be pushing us hard. I am sure as a team we can pull through."
To claim the title Hamilton will only need to finish fifth or better in Sao Paulo in two weeks' time. A seven-point lead and God in his corner. It looks a formality.
Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai (56 Laps)
1 Lewis Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 1hr 31mins 57.403secs
2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:32:12.303
3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:32:13.803
4 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:32:15.703
5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:32:26.303,
6 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:32:30.603,
7 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:32:39.103,
8 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Bra) Renault 1:32:54.003,
9 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33:01.703,
10 David Coulthard (Brit) Red Bull 1:33:12.203,
11 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda 1:33:22.403,
12 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 1:33:28.203,
13 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33:28.803,
14 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:33:29.803,
15 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams + 1 lap,
16 Jenson Button (Brit) Honda + 1 lap, 17 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India + 1 lap. Not Classified: 18 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 49 laps completed, 19 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 13 laps completed, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 2 laps completed
Championship Standings
Drivers:1 Lewis Hamilton (Brit) McLaren 94pts, 2 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 87, 3 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 75, 4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 69, 5 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 60, 6 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 53, 7 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 51, 8 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Scuderia Toro Rosso 30, 9 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 30, 10 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 22, 11 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 21, 12 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Bra) Renault 19, 13 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 17, 14 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Honda 11, 15 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 9, 16 David Coulthard (Brit) Red Bull 8, 17 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 4, 18 Jenson Button (Brit) Honda 3.
Manufacturers:1 Ferrari 156pts, 2 McLaren 145, 3 BMW Sauber 135, 4 Renault 72, 5 Toyota 52, 6 Scuderia Toro Rosso 34, 7 Red Bull 29, 8 Williams 26, 9 Honda 14 end 191034 OCT 08
