Alonso wins in Japan, Massa and Hamilton collide

OMAYA, Japan (AP) -Renault's Fernando Alonso won the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday in a race that featured a collision between championship rivals Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa on the second lap.

Both leading drivers received pit drive-through penalties, and while Ferrari's Massa recovered to finish eighth and earn one championship point near the end of the race, McLaren's Hamilton finished out of the points in 12th.

Hamilton's championship lead was cut from seven to six points with two races remaining this season, while Ferrari moved six points ahead of McLaren in the constructors' standings.

"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."

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.

"It's difficult to believe," Alonso said. "Today we had nothing and we won again - I can't believe it now. ... The feeling I have now is we can do anything."

Kubica finished second and Raikkonen third. Kubica has now emerged as an outside contender for the title, 12 points behind Hamilton.

"Twelve points behind the leader with two races to go - anything can happen," Kubica said.

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, 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.

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.

The extraordinary collision between title combatants - reminiscent of previous Japan tangles between championship rivals Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in their heyday - had the Ferrari pit crew punching the air in exultation, as it looked like Massa was set to cut into if not overtake Hamilton's championship lead.

Their joy was to be short-lived as stewards quickly penalized both drivers.