As Clear as Mist

The body language on the grid for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix spoke volumes about the run-up to the race, in a more eloquent way than any press conference could reveal. McLaren's Fernando Alonso was the picture of quiet confidence, while teammate, main rival and championship leader Lewis Hamilton appeared tense and listless.

Alonso had every reason to feel confident. When the F1 circus returned to the Fuji circuit after an absence of thirty years, the imposing backdrop of Mount Fuji greeted them with swathes of thick mist and downpours. Even though he'd been denied pole by another brilliant last-minute Saturday afternoon effort from Hamilton, the reigning champion's smile and relaxed demeanour on the grid were not faked.

After two stellar wet weather drives at Hungary 2006 and Nurburgring 2007, Alonso is an acknowledged wet weather expert. Hamilton, by contrast, had only been tested once in the wet during his debut F1 season - and had ended up stranded in the gravel at Nurburgring, regaining the circuit only through the help of a cooperative crane driver. Alonso also had momentum on his side, having beaten Hamilton in each of the previous three GP.

Forty-one laps later, F1 demonstrated again just how misleading the form book can be, and how quickly fortunes can turn on a wet track. Heading into the Fuji weekend, Hamilton would have been hoping, at best, to eke out a point or two advantage over his teammate and the distant Ferrari pursuers. As he passed the wreckage of Alonso's car at turn 6 on lap 42, it was with the realisation that he could now open up daylight between himself and the rest, and all but secure the title.

It was no surprise, even in the treacherous conditions, that Hamilton saw out the remaining laps without incident. That is just the type of season that he has enjoyed all along. However, even gifted and relatively unpressured wins often have their heart-stopping moments and their share of luck, and Hamilton's victory on Sunday was no exception.

The first stroke of good fortune for Hamilton was that the Ferrari challenge evaporated almost immediately, due to the their decision to start on the intermediate tyres. It seemed initially like inexplicable Ferrari defiance of an order by race director Charlie Whiting. As it turned out, it was due to the stewards' pre-race communication being as clear as the Mount Fuji mists.

In an age when radio, cellphone, fax and printed communications are all viable, at a venue in which all the team principals are gathered within the space of a couple of hundred yards, in a year in which F1 has already suffered one ruinous legal controversy, it beggars belief that the stewards saw fit to circulate a crucial directive by the single (and potentially unreliable) means of email.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20 vision. But electronic failures are not uncommon along the pitwall. Some months back, we witnessed the Renault team suddenly losing power to their laptops and other electronic gear. The potential for having that vital email go undelivered was both predictable and avoidable, by having some form of back-up communication. The FIA has now decided on printed document back-ups. At best, it's a decision that was taken a day too late.

If the Ferrari pair had been within a point or two of the championship lead, the ramifications of the late email delivery could have been catastrophic. Ironically, the stewards were spared yet more controversy by the very team they had disadvantaged. Although Ferrari have complained (justifiably) about the late email delivery, there is also the realisation that the gamble to start on intermediates would have backfired on them anyway, even if race control had allowed it.

Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa during the Japanese Grand Prix © LAT

Yet, for 19 agonisingly slow laps at the race start, Ferrari's punishment seemed to have nullified the strategic gaffe and put them straight back into contention. Having tanked both cars up to the gunwales during the forced stop to switch to the mandated full wet tyres, the red cars were sitting pretty.

With enough fuel to last the distance (if the race continued under the safety car) and with the lighter McLarens still needing to pit, Ferrari's inadvertent breach of the rules could have led to the most improbable 1-2 triumph in GP history. It is doubtful that Lewis Hamilton will ever again be so relieved to see the safety car pulling off the circuit and allowing racing to resume.

Although Hamilton's good fortune didn't end there. Fifteen laps later, his McLaren survived a solid thump from Robert Kubica's BMW, sufficient to spin both cars around. In those circumstances, escaping with just a race-long vibration problem was a major let-off.

Kubica was clearly in a racy mood, and engaged in more boisterous antics with Ferrari's Felipe Massa on the final lap. The Massa incident went unpunished, the brush with Hamilton cost the young Pole a drive-through penalty. Neither incident should have earned the stewards' wrath.

In the aftermath of the Prost/Senna and Schumacher eras, it is understandable that the stewards want to discourage any potential for collisions with championship-altering consequences. But even championship challengers still need to race and earn their positions by fighting for them. In the current climate, any racer in the same zip code as a championship leader will feel obliged to slow down and figuratively leap out of the way to avoid a penalty - even if they are fighting for position.

Today's championship challengers have shown the responsibility to race hard but fairly on the track. Until a precedent is set to change that, the stewards should be giving them the benefit of the doubt. Although Red Bull's Mark Webber perhaps feels differently.

The Australian's retirement, after being shunted from behind by Toro Rosso's rookie Sebastian Vettel, was Hamilton's fourth slice of luck, albeit the least important. At that point in the race, Webber looked well up to the task of overhauling Hamilton and scoring his maiden win after six heartbreaking and fruitless years in F1.

Mark Webber at speed in Fuji © LAT

With his main rival already out and the Ferrari pair well behind him, Hamilton would have been foolish to contest the position aggressively with Webber. It would have meant sacrificing two points but, in the championship context, that was still a better deal than Hamilton could have dreamt of before the race. As things turned out, even that minor compromise wasn't necessary. On a day when the chips fell in his favour, Hamilton could afford to chase - and have - the maximum reward.

The result has left Hamilton in the enviable position of only needing to take up station at the rear of the top four for the remaining two races. He can let the other three vanish into the distance, and slot into the gap before the BMWs and Renaults. A pair of five-pointers would see him home comfortably as the youngest WDC ever.

It is Formula One, so the fat lady isn't even warming up yet. But, with the consistency and reliability that Hamilton and McLaren have shown all season, she is at least glancing over the sheet music in preparation.