The Complete 2008 Chinese GP Review

With just a week to recover from the crushing disappointments of Fuji, with a cacophony of criticism from current rivals, former stars and pundits filling the newspapers, and with time fast running out in this year's championship battle, Lewis Hamilton had to do something special in China to get his season back on course.

And he could hardly have responded any better to the challenges facing him.

Hamilton dominated practice, qualifying and the race, his controlled performance a complete inversion of his anarchic approach to the Japanese Grand Prix. It certainly helped that McLaren had the edge on Ferrari in Shanghai, but given recent events it would have been so easy to let the pressure intervene again - and he didn't.

"Honestly today Lewis was in another league, he was driving perfectly, fast, consistent and we couldn't even think of attacking him," said Ferrari's gracious team boss Stefano Domenicali.

"What we said this morning in our briefing was try to attack Lewis, above all at the beginning, but we really couldn't do it, because he was too fast."

So a weekend that started with Hamilton being lambasted from all directions ended with him being praised by an arch-rival. The 'Lewis versus the world' scenario was slightly over-hyped in some quarters during the build-up, but there was no doubt that a numbers of his rivals are unimpressed by aspects of both his character and his driving style.

Fernando Alonso was clearly both stirring and being sincere when he argued it was only natural that he wanted to see Ferrari beat McLaren as he had fallen out with the latter so emphatically, and it was worth noting that while many rivals took the opportunity to air their grievances about Hamilton when asked, it wasn't like the GPDA organised a press conference specifically to chastise the championship leader. Their feelings were genuine, but suggestions that this amounted to 'bullying' can be quickly dismissed.

Hamilton shrugged this situation off as just part of the game - an inevitable piece of late-season theatre. He didn't adopt the siege mentality sometimes seen in the past, instead he just accepted that being in the spotlight means your peers will occasionally have negative opinions of you, and then got on with winning the race.

It was important for Formula One that either Hamilton or Massa raised their game this weekend, for it would have been a shame for one of them to stumble to the title while being out-classed by the likes of Alonso and Robert Kubica, as had been the case in Japan.

The championship contenders' performances have lurched from the sublime to the ridiculous this year, for just as Hamilton's Montreal pit mistake and hot-headed approach to Fuji showed his flaws, Massa's litany of errors in the opening rounds and embarrassing Silverstone performance detracted from fine achievements like his Singapore pole or his dominant lights to flag wins. This has been an epic season, and the championship should be won in style, and although Shanghai lacked excitement, at least there was no argument that it saw a deserving victor.

Now Hamilton goes to Brazil seven points ahead of Massa, which is the same margin Kimi Raikkonen overturned a year ago. This time it's not a three-way fight though, and there is none of the brooding animosity that the 'spygate' and Alonso/McLaren feud created. The maths may be the same, but the atmosphere is less pressurised. Plus it seems Hamilton might have got his nervous wobble out of the way earlier this time.

But while Hamilton only has to finish fifth in Brazil, which should be straightforward in a McLaren, Massa is a strong favourite to win the race. That means the Briton really can't afford any kind of problem, and might have to gamble on either leading from the front and pulling away from potential trouble, or backing out of the fight and loitering behind the Ferraris.

Either strategy has its risks. Fate could yet intervene in any number of ways, so while Hamilton can sleep a little easier over the next fortnight than he would had Massa reduced his lead in China, the world championship isn't secure yet.

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

Lewis Hamilton started to get things back on track as soon as the Shanghai weekend commenced, setting the fastest time in opening practice with a comfortable 0.4-second advantage over title rival Felipe Massa.

Kimi Raikkonen took third despite a quick spin, with Heikki Kovalainen, Robert Kubica and Fernando Alonso completing a fairly standard top six.

Nelson Piquet reminded the championship leader how his 2007 Chinese GP had ended by taking a trip through the pit lane gravel trap that caused Hamilton's demise last year, although Piquet managed to keep his Renault moving and rejoin.

Practice two - Friday pm

Hamilton made his point even more emphatically on Friday afternoon - setting what proved to be an unbeatable 1:35.750 lap on his first run of the session just five minutes in.

That left him a second clear of the field early on, and although the Renaults later closed in, Hamilton ended the day in a very confident mood.

"From the moment we hit the track this morning, the car felt well balanced and positive," he said. "No matter what we changed on the car, it just kept getting better and better. This is the best possible way to kick off any weekend."

The Ferraris were only sixth and eighth, but outside title contender Robert Kubica fared worse still - languishing in 12th place.

"I'm not happy yet with the balance of the car, and the overall level of grip is poor," the Pole complained.

After morning spins, Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and Mark Webber (Red Bull) were fourth and fifth in practice two, with Sebastien Bourdais seventh behind Massa despite ending the session stuck in the Turn 2 gravel.

Practice three - Saturday am

Until the final few minutes it looked like Hamilton would take a clean sweep of the practice sessions, but then Nick Heidfeld edged ahead of the McLaren by 0.074 seconds, with Kubica only a further 0.015 seconds adrift in the second BMW.

This time it was Hamilton who had a scare in the pit entry, but unlike last year he took to the escape road rather than the gravel and continued unscathed.

The Ferraris were only 12th and 13th fastest, Massa ahead.

The big news of the session was the huge engine failure that Webber suffered with 15 minutes to go, earning the Red Bull-Renault driver a ten-place grid penalty.

Qualifying

Part one

Amid increasing speculation that Bruno Senna was being lined-up for his drive, Rubens Barrichello declared on Saturday morning that he was determined to prove his worth to Honda.

So making it through to Q2 for the first time since Canada was a good start to Barrichello's mission. He beat teammate Jenson Button by nearly half a second as they took 15th and 18th places in Q1.

"It was a really good effort," said the Brazilian veteran, "probably my best lap around this circuit."

But Barrichello possibly benefited from David Coulthard losing time behind Nick Heidfeld and ending up 16th. The BMW passed the Red Bull while Coulthard was on his out-lap, and then stayed ahead as he returned to the pits - prompting an angry tirade from the Scot.

"It is the worst possible example of unsportsmanlike behaviour because all he is doing is screwing my lap," Coulthard raged. "That's kicking your ball out of the rough, that's hitting someone below the belt - that's really, really bad behaviour from Nick.

"I've always given Nick the benefit of the doubt, even though he's been right on the line and maybe slightly over it over the years in some of his driving standards. But that to me sums up the man quite frankly - he's not a sportsman."

Also out were Kazuki Nakajima, who could do no better than 17th for Williams, and the two Force Indias. Adrian Sutil beat Giancarlo Fisichella by 0.009 seconds as the latter rued several slides on his best lap.

Part two

The chances of a major upset in the title fight faded considerably in Shanghai Q2, as Robert Kubica struggled to 12th place, all but ending his chances of closing the 12-point gap to Lewis Hamilton.

"We were struggling with the grip this weekend and we did some changes for qualifying," said Kubica, who had only missed Q3 twice in his career before this weekend. "It looks like they made the situation even worse. We were just not quick enough.

"Already before this Grand Prix we knew that some (bad) circumstances had to happen to Lewis Hamilton and Felipe, and additionally I had to score many points. From now on it does not look great."

He was beaten to 11th by Nelson Piquet, as the Renault driver again missed out on Q3 by a tantalising margin - this time just 0.007 seconds.

Barrichello's strong qualifying run took him to 14th, a pleasing result given Honda's current abysmal form, and he would start between two disgruntled Germans, as Toyota's Timo Glock and Williams' Nico Rosberg found themselves 13th and 15th.

"I struggled to get anything out of the softer tyres and I couldn't get it right," admitted Glock, while Rosberg felt he had dragged all he could from his car.

"It's very dispiriting," he said. "I gave everything in the sessions and extracted the maximum out of the car, but it just didn't come together today."

Part three

At first it looked like the title-chasing teams had sent their number two drivers out as light-fuel 'hares', for after the first Q3 runs Heikki Kovalainen held provisional pole for McLaren by 0.011 seconds over Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari, with Hamilton and Massa over half a second adrift.

But the times were deceptive, for in fact both championship contenders had made a mess of their opening shots at pole.

"It was all good up until Turn 8 and through there I had a big oversteer moment and ran wide and was on the marbles, so that messed me up for turn nine and 10," explained Hamilton.

"I knew where it was lost, so I went out and made sure it worked the next time."

He certainly did, improving by a full 1.2 seconds on his final lap to grab pole with a three tenths of a second margin over Raikkonen.

Second place left the reigning champion a little perplexed, with Raikkonen admitting that he couldn't have matched Hamilton's 1:36.303 lap, but unsure whether that was due to a fundamental lack of speed, or a heavier car.

Massa improved to third place, and was also left shaking his head, having trailed Hamilton by half a second.

"It was not very good," he admitted. "Just difficult to find the balance. Sometimes you get into a corner and have oversteer, sometimes you get into the corner and have too much understeer."

But the most frustrated man in Shanghai was Kovalainen, who tumbled from a potential pole to fifth behind Fernando Alonso's Renault having found just 0.04 seconds on his final flying lap.

"I don't know what happened," he said. "The last run was very poor - I lost the grip."

Sixth place eventually went to Sebastian Vettel once some penalties had been awarded. Webber was actually sixth-fastest in Q3 (and had been quicker than both title challengers on his first lap) as Red Bull tried to minimise the damage of his engine change penalty by opting for an aggressive fuel strategy.

Heidfeld should have been elevated to sixth, but he was given a three-place penalty for his incident with Coulthard in Q1, meaning the Toro Rossos would start sixth and eighth, split by the slightly bemused Jarno Trulli's Toyota.

"We expected a bit more but after our good performance from yesterday and today in practice," he said. "But this afternoon something must have changed with the track. The tyres were sliding more and the grip seemed to be missing so that was a bit strange."

Qualifying results

Pos  Driver       Team                     Q1        Q2        Q3      
 1.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.566  1:34.947  1:36.303
 2.  Raikkonen    Ferrari             (B)  1:35.983  1:35.355  1:36.645
 3.  Massa        Ferrari             (B)  1:35.971  1:35.135  1:36.889
 4.  Alonso       Renault             (B)  1:35.769  1:35.461  1:36.927
 5.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:35.623  1:35.216  1:36.930
 6.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:36.238  1:35.686  1:37.083
 7.  Heidfeld     BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.224  1:35.403  1:37.201
 8.  Vettel       Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:35.752  1:35.386  1:37.685
 9.  Trulli       Toyota              (B)  1:36.104  1:35.715  1:37.934
10.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:36.239  1:35.478  1:38.885
11.  Piquet       Renault             (B)  1:36.029  1:35.722
12.  Kubica       BMW Sauber          (B)  1:36.503  1:35.814
13.  Glock        Toyota              (B)  1:36.210  1:35.937
14.  Barrichello  Honda               (B)  1:36.640  1:36.079
15.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.434  1:36.210
16.  Coulthard    Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:36.731
17.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:36.863
18.  Button       Honda               (B)  1:37.053
19.  Sutil        Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.730
20.  Fisichella   Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:37.739

The Race

After the self-induced calamity of Fuji, this was arguably the most important race start of Lewis Hamilton's career so far - and it went perfectly.

The McLaren swept into Turn 1 with a comfortable advantage over the two Ferraris, with Kimi Raikkonen staying ahead of Felipe Massa.

Behind them, Heikki Kovalainen attacked Fernando Alonso around the outside of the first corner and eventually edged ahead, only to lose fourth place again on the long back straight.

Compared to Fuji, it was a serene start, but the first corner was not entirely without incident as Sebastien Bourdais and Jarno Trulli tangled, causing enough damage to eventually eliminate the Toyota, and sending Bourdais off the road and down to last.

"It's frustrating because he had already done it at Spa and ruined my race at the first corner, and he did it again," said Trulli. "This guy has to slow down and be a little bit quieter at the start."

But Bourdais shrugged off the Italian's complaints.

"I guess he didn't see me," he said. "I was halfway alongside him and he turned in."

While Bourdais began recovering positions and Trulli rapidly concluded his Toyota was too mangled to continue, Hamilton set about breaking Ferrari's challenge with a series of fastest laps.

Although Raikkonen was eventually able to match the McLaren's pace and even close a little, by that time Hamilton had established a stable four-second margin.

"We were just very, very consistent and I think every lap was faster," he said. "I was able to create a gap and from there it was pretty smooth sailing."

Worse still for Ferrari's title challenge, Massa was losing more ground, and trailed Hamilton by eight seconds before pitting on lap 14, although the Brazilian had at least managed to move clear of Alonso, who was in turn dropping Kovalainen as the Finn struggled with understeer induced by mismatched tyres.

Hamilton and Raikkonen both came in on lap 15, with the former stretching his lead slightly further thanks in particular to a sharper out-lap.

The second stint then followed the same pattern as the first - with Hamilton pulling away to the extent that when Raikkonen finally started clawing some time back, it was always going to be in vain.

"Every time I was faster it was too late and the gap stayed the same," said Raikkonen.

By the end of the second stint, Hamilton led Raikkonen by nine seconds and Massa by 19 seconds, and although the Finn had worse luck in traffic (especially when trying to pass Giancarlo Fisichella), he didn't think it made much difference.

"Even if I had been right behind him we were stopping on the same lap, so without mistakes there was no way to get past," he admitted.

This was an awkward situation for Ferrari. Raikkonen had to keep as much pressure on Hamilton as he could, but in doing so he was drawing ever further away from Massa - who he was always going to have to finish behind for the sake of the team's title bid.

But with the race all but settled once Hamilton and Raikkonen completed their second stops on lap 38, Ferrari conceded defeat and allowed Raikkonen to slowly fall back towards Massa. The switch was made into the hairpin with eight laps to go, and the reigning champion had no complaints about performing a number two role.

"We know what we want as a team and that's what we did," he said. "It is normal in these situations."

Hamilton had no intention of crying foul over Ferrari's team orders either.

"I know if Heikki was leading, we would probably do the same thing," he said. "It's playing together as a team."

Indeed the Ferrari team tactics actually made life easier for Hamilton, as he knew that even if Raikkonen was staying close to him, the Finn would eventually have to back off to let Massa catch him.

"It was inevitable the Kimi would let Felipe by, so I just had to keep it under control," said Hamilton, who duly won by 14 seconds and stretched his championship lead to seven points.

Though Massa tried to put a brave face on Ferrari's defeat by highlighting that the team had pulled clear in the constructors' championship, his disconsolate expression was rather more telling. It could have been worse - Hamilton could have clinched the title today - but that was little comfort.

He was right about Ferrari's constructors' title prospects though, with the Italian moving 11 points ahead as Kovalainen hit trouble again. The Finn had struggled all race and was running nearly half a minute off the lead in fifth place, and although Renault were concerned that he would make a very late final stop and move back into contention for fourth, it always looked like Alonso had this position covered.

And the Spaniard's life became even easier on lap 35, when Kovalainen suffered a right-front puncture and tumbled to 15th place by the time he had crawled back to the pits for repairs. He ultimately retired when he lost hydraulic pressure with six laps to go.

Before the race Alonso had mischievously proclaimed that he was keen to help Massa win the title (although he also suggested that his preferred result would have been a shock championship for his friend Kubica), but he didn't look like a man trying to do Ferrari a favour as he set personal best laps and closed rapidly on Raikkonen and Massa in the final stint in an effort to capitalise should the team's tactical shuffle go awry.

"When we saw Kimi slipping behind we tried a final effort, but I'm very, very happy with fourth place," said the Singapore and Fuji winner.

The race ended BMW's hopes of either a drivers' or constructors' titles, but they were satisfied with fifth and sixth places for Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica. Both made good starts and Kubica's 25-lap-long first stint allowed him to run as high as third and jump clear of the cars he had qualified amongst.

Nelson Piquet ran a similar tactic, but it didn't pay off quite as well as it had at Fuji - mainly because Timo Glock was doing an even better job on a one-stop strategy. The Toyota driver lurked in 13th at first, then picked up speed as his fuel load reduced. That eventually earned him seventh ahead of Piquet, as the Renault couldn't pull far enough ahead before its final stop.

Toro Rosso's run of five consecutive points finishes ended in China, as Sebastian Vettel lost out to those running longer and ended the race in ninth. He felt a slow pit stop had been critical, but ultimately it was his inability to escape from those pitting later proved more costly.

It was a point-less race for Red Bull's entire F1 contingent. Bourdais' recovery drive could only take him to 13th place, and RBR's tactic of putting Mark Webber on a short first stint failed to pay off. The Australian charged from 16th on the grid to ninth before pitting on lap 12, but his stop dropped him back amongst the Force Indias, and from there he could only recover to 14th, for both Webber and Bourdais spent the final stint trapped behind Kazuki Nakajima's Williams.

David Coulthard deserved credit for his strong run from 15th on the grid to 10th, though, as he took advantage of a one-stop strategy to gain ground, finishing within 10 seconds of Vettel despite the Toro Rosso's ten-grid-place head-start.

Rubens Barrichello's impressive weekend continued into the race, as a fine start saw him hold 10th (dizzy heights for Honda on current form) in the opening laps. Tyre wear worries prevented Honda from trying a one-stop plan or very long first stint however, so he ultimately had to be content with 11th after the likes of Coulthard jumped ahead in the pit sequences.

But Barrichello still out-performed teammate Jenson Button, who finished ahead of only the off-the-pace Fisichella, whose teammate Adrian Sutil was an earlier retirement with gearbox problems.

Button came home just three seconds behind 15th-placed Nico Rosberg after a particularly frustrating race for the Williams driver. The team gambled on split strategies and hoped a light two-stop load might help Rosberg progress from 14th on the grid. It looked promising at first, but like Webber, Rosberg simply couldn't get clear of the traffic his early first stop plunged him into.

Race results

56 laps; 305.066km;
Weather: Cloudy.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1h31.57.403
 2.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  +    14.925
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    16.445
 4.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    18.370
 5.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +    28.923
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +    33.219
 7.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    41.722
 8.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  +    56.645
 9.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:04.339
10.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:14.842
11.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +  1:25.061
12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +  1:30.847
13.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1:31.457
14.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:32.422
15.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
17.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +     1 lap

Fastest lap: Hamilton, 1:36.325

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)    50
Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)    14
Trulli        Toyota                (B)    3


World Championship standings, round 17:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      94        1.  Ferrari               156
 2.  Massa         87        2.  McLaren-Mercedes      145
 3.  Kubica        75        3.  BMW Sauber            135
 4.  Raikkonen     69        4.  Renault                72
 5.  Heidfeld      60        5.  Toyota                 52
 6.  Alonso        53        6.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     34
 7.  Kovalainen    51        7.  Red Bull-Renault       29
 8.  Vettel        30        8.  Williams-Toyota        26
 9.  Trulli        30        9.  Honda                  14
10.  Glock         22
11.  Webber        21
12.  Piquet        19
13.  Rosberg       17
14.  Barrichello   11
15.  Nakajima       9
16.  Coulthard      8
17.  Bourdais       4
18.  Button         3

Team-by-Team

FERRARI

Raikkonen, who spins twice on Friday, and Massa aren't quite on Hamilton's pace at any stage this weekend.

They start second and third, with Raikkonen trying in vain to stay with Hamilton before eventually conceding defeat and backing off to hand the runner-up spot to his teammate, who had been running a quiet third.

Kubica is deeply unhappy with his car in practice and is only 12th in qualifying. Although he runs well on a long first stint and salvages sixth in the race, it's not enough to keep him in the title hunt.

Heidfeld isn't so downcast and qualifies seventh, gaining one place from Webber's penalty but then losing three to a punishment of his own after he is adjudged to have blocked Coulthard. He makes up places on the first lap and then has a serene run to fifth.

No hat-trick of wins for Alonso, but he remains the top teams' main challenger: qualifying and finishing a very close fourth, having won a wheel-to-wheel battle with Kovalainen on the first lap.

Piquet under-performs in qualifying again and is only 11th. His race pace remains better, though, and he comes through to finish eighth.

Another poor weekend for Williams, with Rosberg and Nakajima only 15th and 17th in qualifying. They gamble on split strategies for the race - putting Nakajima on a one-stop plan and hoping Rosberg can produce an early charge on his two-stop schedule.

Nakajima's strategy proves more successful, as he moves up to 12th while Rosberg gets mired in traffic and finishes only 15th.

Webber is sixth fastest in qualifying having run a light fuel load to try and minimise the consequences of the ten-place grid penalty he will receive following an engine failure in final practice. It's a bad Saturday for Coulthard too, as he is only 16th after being blocked by Heidfeld.

An early charge by Webber comes to little as his lap 12 stop drops him amid the backmarkers. He finishes 14th. But Coulthard fares better, stopping just once and climbing to 10th.

Trulli has an odd spin on Friday morning, but then sets top five times in the next two practice sessions, so is a little disappointed when he can only manage ninth in qualifying. That's still four places better than the frustrated Glock.

But the German has a much better race, progressing to seventh on a one-stop strategy, while a first corner tangle with Bourdais leaves Trulli with too much damage to continue.

STR's points scoring run comes to an end despite Vettel and Bourdais both reaching Q3 again, where they take eighth and 10th - Vettel 1.2 seconds faster than his teammate but only five laps lighter.

Vettel can't beat the drivers on longer stints or one stop strategies in the race and ultimately finishes ninth, while Bourdais goes off in a first corner collision with Trulli. He escapes damage but drops to the back of the field, and can only recover to 13th.

Button thinks 12th on Friday morning is as good as his weekend will get, and sure enough he only qualifies 18th and finishes 16th.

But Barrichello has a more competitive weekend, reaching Q2 and taking 14th place, then holding 10th early on. He gets jumped by the one-stoppers but still finishes 11th.

Another poor weekend for Force India, as Sutil and Fisichella share the back row, just 0.009 seconds (although Fisichella confesses to several mistakes).

They stay at the rear in the race, unable to resist the recovering Bourdais for more than four laps. Fisichella finishes 17th and last, Sutil runs out of gears after 14 laps.

An utterly dominant weekend for Hamilton, who is fastest in every session bar practice three (where Heidfeld beats him by only 0.074 seconds), and then commands the race from the start.

Kovalainen is disappointed with fifth on the grid, loses ground on mismatched tyres in the first stint after being re-passed by Alonso in the opening lap tussle, and then suffers a time-consuming puncture. A loss of hydraulic pressure ultimately leads to his retirement when running 15th.

Lap-by-Lap

Lap 1: Lewis Hamilton makes a clean start to lead the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa into Turn One.

Heikki Kovalainen takes fourth from Fernando Alonso but the Spaniard claims the place back before the lap's end.

Jarno Trulli and Sebastien Bourdais collide on the opening lap © LAT

Nick Heidfeld moves up from ninth to sixth, helped in part by a Turn One clash between Sebastien Bourdais and Jarno Trulli. The Frenchman drops to 18th, the Italian spins and pits for repairs at the end of the lap.

Sebastian Vettel runs seventh from Robert Kubica, Nelson Piquet, Rubens Barrichello, Timo Glock, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Kazuki Nakajima, Adrian Sutil, Bourdais and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Lap 2: Hamilton leads by 1.9 seconds. Webber passes Glock. Trulli pits to retire.

Lap 3: Hamilton laps in 1:37.081 to stretch his lead to 2.5 seconds.

Lap 5: Hamilton posts a 1:36.940. His lead grows to 3.1 seconds. Bourdais passes Sutil for 17th.

Lap 6: Hamilton goes faster again: 1:36.972. Raikkonen is 3.5 seconds behind and Massa another 2.6 seconds. Webber passes Barrichello for 10th.

Lap 7: Bourdais passes Nakajima for 16th.

Lap 8: A 1:36.683 puts Hamilton 4.0 seconds clear. Webber passes Piquet for ninth.

Lap 10: Fastest lap to Raikkonen: 1:36.664. He is 3.9 seconds behind.

Lap 11: Raikkonen posts a 1:36.612 and reduces the gap to 3.7 seconds.

Lap 12: Webber pits. Rosberg passes Glock.

Lap 13: Hamilton laps in 1:36.325. He stretches his lead to 4.1 seconds. Piquet runs wide at Turn 16.

Lap 14: Massa and Alonso pit. Sutil spins into retirement at Turn 16.

Lewis Hamilton extends his lead over the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa © LAT

Lap 15: Hamilton and Raikkonen pit, as does Rosberg.

Lap 16: Kovalainen leads from Heidfeld, Hamilton, Vettel and Raikkonen. Massa is seventh, behind Kubica.

Lap 17: Heidfeld pits. Kovalainen leads Hamilton by 7.2 seconds. The latter is 0.6 seconds faster than both Ferraris.

Lap 18: Kovalainen and Vettel pit. Hamilton leads.

Lap 19: Hamilton leads Raikkonen by 6.8 seconds. Kubica remains third, ahead of Massa. Barrichello pits.

Lap 22: Button pits.

Lap 23: Bourdais pits.

Lap 24: Piquet pits.

Lap 25: Kubica pits.

Lap 27: Raikkonen reduces the gap to 6.4 seconds.

Lap 28: Hamilton leads Raikkonen by 6.6 seconds and Massa by 15.5 seconds. Alonso, Kovalainen, Heidfeld and Glock are next. Coulthard and Fisichella pit.

Lap 29: Raikkonen pulls back half a second.

Lap 30: The leaders lap Fisichella. Raikkonen loses 1.4 seconds to Hamilton.

Lap 31: Bourdais passes Coulthard for 14th. Nakajima pits for the first time, Webber for the second.

Lap 32: Glock pits.

Lap 33: Rosberg passes Coulthard for 13th.

Lap 35: Kovalainen has a punctured right front. He slowly gets back to the pits and drops towards the tail of the field.

Lap 36: Alonso pits.

Lap 37: Massa pits.

Lap 38: Hamilton and Raikkonen pit, as does Piquet.

Nicolas and Lewis Hamilton celebrate in parc ferme © LAT

Lap 39: Hamilton leads Raikkonen by 13.0 seconds. Heidfeld, Bourdais and Rosberg pit.

Lap 40: Raikkonen reduces his arrears by 0.7 seconds. The Ferraris are 2.6 seconds apart. Kubica and Barrichello pit.

Lap 41: Vettel pits.

Lap 43: Button pits.

Lap 46: With 10 laps remaining, Hamilton leads Raikkonen by 13.9 seconds and Massa by 16.0 seconds.

Lap 47: Massa is closing on Raikkonen.

Lap 48: Massa is 1.1 seconds behind Raikkonen.

Lap 49: Massa passes Raikkonen. Kovalainen pits and pulls into his garage.

Lap 52: Alonso is 5.1 seconds behind Raikkonen and closing.

Lap 53: Alonso sets a personal best: 1:36.683. He is 4.3 seconds behind Raikkonen.

Lap 56: Hamilton wins by 14.9 seconds from Massa, Raikkonen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Kubica, Glock and Piquet. Hamilton leads the world championship by seven points. Fifth place in Brazil will be enough to clinch the title.