Fernando Alonso took his second win of the season at Fuji today, but the Japanese GP was marred by controversial stewards decisions. Lewis Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for an incident on the first lap, while championship rival Felipe Massa also acquired a drive-through for tapping Hamilton into a spin later in the race. However, the 25 second post-race penalty dished out to the luckless Sebastien Bourdais for having the temerity to exit the pitlane in the vicinity of Massa was in a league of its own.

Alonso won from a hard-charging Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen; with Bourdais’s penalty Massa moved up to seventh in the final classification and hence closes the championship gap to Hamilton to five points with two races to go.