Alonso earns eastern promise

FERNANDO ALONSO believes anything is possible in the final two races of the season, after winning the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Renault driver followed up his win at Formula One’s inaugural night race in Singapore two weeks ago with a deserved victory on the Fuji Speedway circuit.

Alonso had started the race fourth on the grid but profited from mistakes by the leaders to take charge, as championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only manage a disappointing 12th place.

The Spaniard heads to China next week high on confidence, and believes more podium finishes are not out of the question.

“The feeling I have now is that we can do anything,” he said.

“I am confident for the next two races. Maybe we will get no wins — but who knows, maybe podiums are possible now.”

It was the first time Alonso has secured back-to-back victories since 2006.

Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton extracted the positives from a dramatic race before setting his sights on victories in the remaining two races to secure the world championship.

The McLaren driver was on pole but made a bad start as he forced Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen off the circuit at turn one when attempting to pass the Finn.

That manoeuvre meant he dropped down the field and was also hit with a drive-through penalty.

It got worse for the Briton in the next lap when he spun after a collision with title rival Felipe Massa and the rest of the field streaked past.

Hamilton never recovered and consequently finished outside the points in 12th place.

“Obviously I am disappointed,” said Hamilton.

“I am not happy after a result like today but I’m already getting over it and tomorrow will be another day.

“Disappointingly, I didn’t make a great start but I slipstreamed Kimi and went up the inside. I braked a bit late — but so did everybody.

“A lot of cars went wide at turn one and I just went a bit wider than everyone else.

“But you can’t undo the penalty or change today’s result.

Ferrari’s Massa closed the gap in the driver standings to five points having first finished eighth before profiting from a penalty handed to Sebastien Bourdais to be promoted to seventh.

The championship is destined for a nervy finish with just two races remaining but Hamilton remained confident of his chances of becoming Formula One’s youngest-ever world champion.

“There are positives to take from today,” added the 23-year-old. “I’ve only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers’ championship, so it is definitely not over.

Massa, meanwhile, insists the clash between himself and Hamilton on the Fuji Speedway circuit has done nothing to sour the relationship between the two.

Both drivers felt the other was in the wrong during the incident that caused Hamilton to spin but Massa insists the respect between the two remains as the battle for the championship really heats up.

Hamilton came under fire from Robert Kubica recently after the Pole claimed some of his manoeuvres on the circuit are too dangerous, but Massa said: “I have a good relationship with Lewis and I will not do anything to destroy something on purpose.