Buzzin F1 - Formula One Blog

Fernando Alonso 2008

Fernando Alonso proved to the doubters that he was capable of winning a Grand Prix without the aid of a safety car on Sunday at the Fuji Speedway circuit.

Alonso slipped into second place at the start of the race after qualifying fourth in the Renault following the race leader Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber.

Alonso took the lead after the first round of pit-stops while his team-mate Nelson Piquet had moved into sixth position.

Alonso kept his lead after the second round of pit-stops to take the victory followed by Kubica in second and Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen in third.

Raikkonen was forced wide on the first corner as Hamilton locked his brakes going up the inside of the Ferrari putting Raikkonen down into seventh place.

On lap two, the second Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, also got in a tangle with Hamilton spinning the McLaren onto the grass moving Raikkonen up to fifth and getting himself a drive-through penalty.

Massa was involved in another incident with Sebastien Bourdais in the Toro Rosso when Bourdais was exiting the pit lane on lap fifty-one.  The two ran side by side until Massa squeezed Bourdais to the edge of the track and sent him spinning.

Lewis Hamilton finished in twelveth place after also receiving a drive-through penalty for the incident with Raikkonen.

Heikki Kovalainen in the second McLaren Mercedes, was forced to retire from the race on lap seventeen with engine failure.

Bourdais was running in sixth place and the incident between himself and Massa would be investigated after the race.  Amazingly, Bourdais was given a twenty-five second penalty dropping him down to tenth place and no points.

The Williams team scored no points this weekend after Nico Rosberg suffered from a technical problem at the start of the race leaving him in eleventh place at the end of the race while on a one-stop strategy.  Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima got caught up in the incident on the first corner and lost his front wing and had to return to the pits for an unscheduled stop, putting him at the back of the field.

Here are the results;