The Formula One season will go down to the final race with three men chasing the drivers' title after Lewis Hamilton missed his chance to clinch it in China by gambling on one lap too many on bad tires.
Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari won the Chinese Grand Prix yesterday, and Hamilton's chances of becoming the first rookie to ever win the title were put in jeopardy as he ran off the track in slippery conditions.
Fernando Alonso finished second to close to within four points of his McLaren teammate and title rival. Hamilton now has 107 points, Alonso 103 and Raikkonen 100.
PHOTO: AP
It will be the first time since 1986 that three drivers will enter the final race with a chance to take the title.
It was the fifth win of the season for Raikkonen. Alonso and Hamilton have four each. If there is a tie, the number of victories will break the tie. After that, the number of seconds will be counted.
With his wet-weather tires deteriorating in drying conditions, Hamilton and his McLaren team chose to wait through another lap of light rain before pitting at the end of lap 31. When he eventually did make his way toward the pits, Hamilton -- near faultless all season -- slid off into a gravel trap at the top of pit lane.
PHOTO: EPA
"When I got out of the car, I was obviously gutted for both myself and the team," Hamilton said. "I haven't made a mistake all year but I am over it now."
"There is still one race to go so I can still do it," he said. "I will now focus on attacking in Brazil where I will do everything I can to bounce back."
It was the first time this season that Hamilton failed to finish a race, but Alonso and Raikkonen acknowledged the young Briton remained favorite to win the title.
"Lewis will be very focused in Brazil . He has the capacity to do well in Brazil," Alonso said. "Everything is looking good for him."
"For the championship, I still need something dramatic to win. With a normal race it will be impossible," he said.
Raikkonen would need even more unusual circumstances to clinch the title in Brazil, but was buoyed by yesterday's victory.
"We just have to win the race and see what happens to the others," Raikkonen said.
"We saw today anything can happen. We are just in a better position than we came here but still it will be difficult," he said.
Hamilton started from pole knowing he only needed to finish ahead of Alonso to become the first rookie to win the drivers' title, but rain began to fall just as the drivers began the warm-up formation lap.
Eight laps into the race it stopped raining and a dry line emerged on the track. By that time Hamilton was leading, more than five seconds ahead of Raikkonen and nine up on Massa. Alonso was 11 seconds back.
Hamilton was the first to pit after 15 laps, giving Raikkonen the lead for four laps. Raikkonen managed some fast laps with clear track in front of him, and by the time the Finn had emerged from his own pit stop, Hamilton's lead was down to four seconds.
Rain began to fall again, and Hamilton was having difficulty controlling his car on deteriorating wet-weather tires, allowing Raikkonen to close onto his tail.
By the 28th lap they were wheel-to-wheel. Hamilton fended off two passing attempts, but Raikkonen got by on the third.
Just three laps later, Hamilton's race was finished.
He was coming into the pits to change to dry-weather tires, attempted to take the mild turn into the pit lane at speed, but lost traction and left the tarmac after twice trying to correct.
The McLaren slid into a gravel trap near the pitlane entrance. He remained in his car trying to get some bite from his tires or a push from the Chinese race attendants but eventually accepted his fate and calmly made his way back to the garage.
Hamilton stood by the decision to hold off on a tire change.
"Although my tires were in poor condition, we took a joint decision to get through the last rain shower before changing to dry tires," Hamilton said.
"I was trying to be careful and as a result was not really fighting aggressively with Kimi. I would have worked out perfectly but I then made a mistake coming into the pit lane and that was it," he said.
With Hamilton out of the race, Raikkonen continued in the lead, followed by Alonso.
Raikkonen was eight seconds ahead at the start of the 35th lap, and he maintained that buffer the rest of the way as the rain held off.
Behind the place-getters, 20-year-old Sebastian Vettel of Toro Rosso finished fourth, Jenson Button of Honda was fifth, followed by Vitantoni Liuzzi of Toro Rosso in sixth.
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