OYAMA, Japan -- Renault's Fernando Alonso won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday in a race that will be remembered for a second-lap collision between championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.
Both leading drivers received pit drive-through penalties, and while Ferrari's Massa recovered to snatch eighth and one championship point near the end of the race, McLaren's Hamilton finished out of the points in 12th.
Hamilton's championship lead is now cut from seven to five points with two races remaining this season, while Ferrari moves seven points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' championship.
"What can I say, it was a bad day, I'll move on to next week," Hamilton said. "I went wide at turn one, it was a mistake, and then Felipe hit me off, I went on the inside and he broke left and hit me pretty hard.
"I lost one point which I guess is damage limitation."
Hamilton made the comments immediately after the race when it appeared Massa had finished eighth and gained a single point. However a postrace stewards' ruling promoted the Brazilian to seventh.
Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais was docked 25 seconds for colliding with Massa on the 51st lap, relegating the Frenchman to 10th and moving the four drivers below him up one place.
Alonso completed back-to-back wins after his victory in Singapore, taking advantage of an incident between Hamilton and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to move up to second on the opening lap, and then passing early leader Robert Kubica of BMW via the first set of pit stops.
Kubica finished second and Raikkonen third. Kubica has now emerged as an outside contender for the title, 12 points behind Hamilton.
Raikonnen -- second on the grid -- got the better start and slipped ahead of pole-sitter Hamilton in the run to the first corner. The Briton, over-eager to take back the lead, went into the bend too quickly on hard tires in cool conditions, running wide and forcing the Finn to do the same.
That allowed Kubica, Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen, Jarno Trulli and Massa to get ahead of that front-row pair after the first corner.
"Braking into the first corner they both (Hamilton and McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen) hit me, I had nowhere to go," Raikkonen said. "It was Heikki who hit me harder."
The key incident came on the second lap when Hamilton passed Massa at turn 10. The Brazilian, trying to immediately re-pass, went over the ripple strip curbing at turn 11, and they collided after the apex, with the front right tire of his Ferrari clipping the left rear of the McLaren. Hamilton spun as a result while Massa continued on.
