Starting with Japan we were down to the last three GPs of the year, and a championship fight between Ferrari and McLaren that both seem to be doing their best not to win. Maybe it would have taught everyone a lesson if BMW had kept on developing this year's car and Kubica had taken the World Championship.

Both the leading teams have had their wobbles. Lewis Hamilton has shown blinding speed, but his inexperience has handicapped both him and the team in their title bids, and as for Ferrari……..it’s difficult to know what to say. Organisationally they are undoubtedly suffering from the wholesale change at the top of the team, and whereas Schumacher, Todt and Brawn would have driven a coach and horses though the opposition this year (and last), the Massa/Raikkonen/Domenicali set-up is still not at the very top level. Rollickings from Montezemolo seem to abound after many races and confidence appears to have diminished.

After the Ferrari mishaps in Singapore, and Hamilton’s good lead in the championship, we needed a really good result in Fuji and, indeed, the team were targeting a succession of one-twos for the rest of the season. Raikkonen was clearly not happy with his demotion to support driver and this shone though his various TV interviews when he seemed to indicate, with a shrug of his shoulders, that it was up to Massa to win the races for himself. In any case whatever happened to the FIA ban on team orders?

The roller-coaster of Raikkonen's form was back near the top in Japan and he was quickest for most of Q3 until suddenly at the end Hamilton pulled out a stunning lap to grab pole and demote him to second. It couldn't have been much worse for Massa, as he was down in fifth with Kovalainen third and Alonso fourth, the Spaniard showing that Renault's speed in Singapore was no fluke. Kubica was a solid sixth for BMW and the Toyotas of Trulli and Glock seventh and eighth. Glock had been fastest of all in Friday practice at the Toyota-owned circuit but was unable to reproduce this in official Qualifying.

The two Tori Rossi of Vettel and Bourdais completed the top ten continuing their run of good results and again overshadowing the "senior" team. Part of their advantage is clearly down to their Ferrari engine, but it seems that they are running more rear weight bias than Red Bull. It's good to see team co-owner Gerhard Berger enjoying the upside of Ferrari engineering as he suffered much from the downside in V12 days.

That Hamilton pole must have caused some dismay in the Ferrari camp, it appeared so effortless and supreme, and happened just at the right moment to cause Ferrari confidence to become unsettled again. All Hamilton now had to do for his Championship chase was cruise round to the finish and ideally finish ahead of Massa and this was what he said he would do as he had matured as a driver. Yet in the race he did precisely the opposite.

The racer's red mist overrode good sense, and he saw a gap inside the first corner that would get him ahead of the fast –starting Ferraris. The ensuing kerfuffle dropped Massa to 5th, Hamilton to 6th, and Raikkonen to 7th whilst at the front Kubica and Alonso took over the lead. A lap later Hamilton made, to my mind, another capital error when he forced Massa over the edge of a chicane from which the latter shot back on the track, hit the McLaren and caused it to spin. Massa quickly carried on, having lost two places, but Hamilton had to wait for the entire field to pass and resumed dead last.

The armband brigade then got involved, deemed that Massa had caused the chicane accident and Hamilton the first-corner one, and gave them both a drive-through penalty. And with that the afternoon was over for them, although Massa managed to salvage a couple of points with a good recovery drive, benefiting from another bizarre stewards' decision to impose a 25 second penalty on Bourdais for causing Massa to spin when the Frenchman rejoined the track after a pit stop. The nanny state has well and truly arrived in Formula One and if this carries on we can look forward to even less racing as drivers will be scared to pass and more random results like back in the days of fuel limitations when we never knew who would actually get to the finish!

At the front Kubica and Alonso drove supremely away from their pursuers, led by Kovalainen and Trulli in yet another good showing from the Toyotas. Alonso’s speed was relentless and he jumped Kubica at the first pit stops by dint of some blinding lappery and short-fueling to get him ahead. The Renaults had clearly found extra speed for even the under-talented Piquet was going well and would finish fourth. Maybe Renault had done the same as Ferrari and got the FIA to approve engine mods on the basis of increasing reliability! These things work in mysterious ways.

And what of Kimi? He drove around in fourth place for a while, moved up to third when Kovalainen retired, and then had a few serious pops at getting by Kubica to snatch second. This was actually quite good to watch, the Ferrari was quicker in a straight line but Kubica was more than a match for him even in an ill-handling BMW Sauber and he defended well (and fairly) until the Ferrari’s tyres were shot and Kimi had to settle for third and some points for the Constructors’ Championship.

Massa finished eighth on the road but Bourdais’ penalty moved him up to seventh for which he got 2 points to eat into Hamilton’s championship lead; the latter finished 12th and is now just 5 points ahead with two races to go; but Kubica is only 7 points behind Massa, so anything could happen amongst this lot. The only thing for certain is that Raikkonen has lost his World Championship.

On a final note, I couldn’t help but reflect that the gross consumption of F1 is going to be in for a bit of a shock when majestic and generous sponsors suddenly realise that their excess money has disappeared. No matter how much effort is expended in trying to empirically prove that racing is good for the brand, it all comes down to whether the boss wants to personally get involved in F1 and, with state-controlled banks now taking over the major economies for the next few years, they may find their generosity with shareholders' money being seriously curtailed. So, in Fuji we had the bold move to paint Formula One tyres green, as if this would make the slightest difference, but this is whistling in the wind – they won’t know what’s going to hit their world.

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Raikkonen was quickest for most of Q3

Vettel was one of two Tori Rossi to get into the last 10

Kimi out-dragged Hamilton at the start

The red mist descends

On severely flat-spotted tyres, Hamilton forces Massa off the road

A Merc engine goes bang

The Scuderia reverted to the lollipop

Late on, Raikkonen closed on Kubica, but could not get past....

....but Massa did get past Webber for one point...

....which became two when Bourdais was penalised in another bizarre stewards' decision

Alonso demonstrated to Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa et al what world-class driving is all about

click for FIA lap chart

Finally....

Gerhard Berger retired the V12 640 from the 1989 Japanese GP, but with transmission failure

pics by Ferrari Media, FIA, Reuters, XPB, LAT, NFI & Sutton