With his lead over Felipe Massa cut to five points, Lewis Hamilton points his finger at the Ferrari driver for the collision that saw the Briton finish out of the points. Maurice Hamilton reports.
Lewis Hamilton accused Felipe Massa of deliberately crashing into him at the Japanese Grand Prix as he finished out of the points and lost ground on the Brazilian, his chief rival.
Hamilton had started on pole and his terrible race leaves him in danger of letting the World Championship slip away for the second season in succession. His lead over Massa has been cut to five points with two GPs remaining.
The McLaren driver collided with Massa as they disputed fifth place on lap two with Massa hitting the Briton after misjudging his braking and allowing Hamilton to draw alongside. Hamilton was sent into a spin which dropped him from sixth to last and Massa received a drive-through penalty.
“He outbraked me so I didn’t get past him on the way in,” Hamilton said. “I did the corner normally and he came back very aggressively and hit me. I think that was pretty much as deliberate as can be.”
Massa denied he had intended to hamper Hamilton.
Earlier in the week, BMW’s Robert Kubica had criticised Hamilton’s driving by saying the Englishman was too aggressive. Once again that appeared to be the case as Hamilton made a bad start and then forced several cars to run wide as he tried to regain the lead from Massa’s team-mate Kimi Raikkonen at the first corner.
Hamilton received a drive-through penalty for causing the incident, another controversial decision by the race stewards over what he and his McLaren team considered to be a normal first-corner incident. The Briton had also been penalised at the Belgian GP earlier. By the time the penalty had been announced, Hamilton was at the back of the field following a collision with Massa’s Ferrari as they disputed fifth place on lap two.
“My personal disappointment will be with the start and the second will be with the way I’m treated,” said Hamilton. “I had a bad start and I slip-streamed Kimi. I had an opportunity to go to the outside, so I went. But everyone braked late and went wide. I just went a bit wider than everyone else and, for some reason, I got a penalty for that. I can’t honestly understand that. I can’t change it and just have to keep everything together.”
“Today was a very challenging day,” said Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal. “We were a bit surprised that Lewis was given a penalty in respect of the first-corner incident, simply because we’ve all seen similar first-corner incidents that triggered no such penalty. Drivers miss braking points, they run wide. These things happen.”
Hamilton now has another challenger for the title with Robert Kubica fast coming up on the rails after a second-place finish at Fuji. The Pole is only 12 points behind with two races to go.
Hamilton, who goes into the penultimate race of the season in China only five points ahead of Massa, must be worried that history is about to repeat itself after he let slip the title over the final two GPs last season. Before the Japanese GP, Hamilton claimed he had learned his lesson from last year.
“Over the years, you learn how to deal with all the different pressures you face at the end of the year,” said Hamilton. “There are positives to take from today. I’ve only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers’ championship, so it is definitely not over.”
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