McLaren rookie Lewis Hamilton has won this afternoon’s wet Japanese GP to extend his lead in the driver’s championship with just two races remaining. Heikki Kovalainen finished second, his best result and Renault’s first podium of the year after holding off the charging Ferrari of third placed Kimi Raikkonen. David Coulthard was fourth with Giancarlo Fisichella fifth and Felipe Massa sixth after a last lap battle with the BMW of Robert Kubica, a battle that Massa won in the end. Tonio Liuzzi scored a point for Toro Rosso in eighth while Jenson Button retired on the final lap.

With rain falling and heavy fog present, race officials announced that this afternoon’s fifteenth round of the season would start behind the safety car. The race begins and cars kick up a lot of spray as they tiptoe around the track, but Felipe Massa, who wasn’t on extreme wets as he was meant to be, spins off and rejoins a few places down. He reclaims the lost places then pits for extreme wets, putting him down in 21^st place. Tonio Liuzzi, who started from pitlane, is running last, a lap down.

Kimi Raikkonen, who was running third behind the two McLaren’s comes in to change to extreme wets also, dropping him back behind his teammate. Drivers are reporting that conditions are getting worse on track and Kimi Raikkonen has a small spin, but doe to the fact that he is the last driver on the lead lap, he doesn’t lose position. Ralf Schumacher tells his Toyota team that it is ‘pure madness’ to continue in these conditions.

Jarno Trulli tells his team that he almost hit David Coulthard but the safety car continues on. Tonio Liuzzi pits again. Jarno Trulli spins at turn six and both Ferrari drivers pit again as does Alex Wurz. The stewards investigate Felipe’s overtaking moves earlier in the race after he went off track and decided to penalize him with a drive through.  Tonio Liuzzi has made his way back onto the lead lap and his 1:36 time shows race control that they can go a lot faster.

Barrichello, Sato and Trulli all pit, taking the same gamble of fuelling to the finish. After eighteen laps, the lights go out on the safety car and the race starts! Issues for Heidfeld in third and he drops through the pack, Jenson Button loses his front wing after hitting the Sauber, but keeps going and the Williams of Alex Wurz loses it and collides into the Ferrari of Felipe Massa. Wurz is out, but Massa continues.  Heidfeld drops to tenth and Sebastien Vettel is up to third!

Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato pits and he leaves the garage in flames! Thankfully it is raining hard enough to put the flames out and he continues on. Meanwhile, at the front Lewis Hamilton is putting in some very impressive times and is almost three seconds ahead of his teammate. Alonso pits and comes out just ahead of Raikkonen, however he is back in the pack amid traffic. Lewis is in next and he comes out ahead of the fighting pack and into third behind Vettel and Webber. A Toro Rosso leads in Japan!

Alonso goes off track momentarily and Felipe Massa spins again. Alonso is into eighth place, Raikkonen tenth with Nick Heidfeld between them. Vettel pits on lap 32 and Mark Webber leads! Lewis Hamilton is hit by the BMW of Robert Kubica and although he continues on, the McLaren driver soon begins to lose time. Alonso is also in trouble as he makes contact with Sebastien Vettel and falls behind Kimi Raikkonen. Robert Kubica is under investigation for his contact with Hamilton and a drive through penalty ensues.

Kimi Raikkonen pits for fresh tyres and fuel as does Fisichella putting Lewis back into the lead of the race with Webber second and Vettel third.

Lap 42 and Alonso is in the wall at turn five! His McLaren bounces back across the circuit and there is debris all over the track. The Spaniard is uninjured, apart from his pride, as the safety car is deployed. Whilst warming tyres under the safety car, third placed Sebastien Vettel ran into the back of second placed Mark Webber, in the sister Red Bull, putting both cars out of the race. Disaster for Red Bull who were on track for a double podium finish! Vettel is devastated…..Webber is furious…. “the kid doesn’t have enough experience and f***ed it all up”

The race restarts on lap 48 with nineteen laps remaining. Rosberg spins, pits and rejoins the circuit, while Ralf Schumacher retires. Lap 53 and Liuzzi spins again with the Spyker of Adrian Sutil passing him for P10. Kimi Raikkonen closes up on fourth placed David Coulthard and takes the place, however he had an off track excursion next time around but managed to hold position. Now up behind his teammate, Felipe Massa, the Ferrari mechanics come out and the Brazilian is in for tyres and fuel with just eight laps to go, allowing Raikkonen into P3.

On track for his first point of the season in eighth, Rubens Barrichello also pits, allowing Massa into the points instead. The Brazilian fought all the way to the end to take sixth place. Lewis Hamilton took the chequered flag in the same place he started P1 and extended his lead over teammate Fernando Alonso by ten points. He now leads the championship by twelve points with two rounds remaining.