FORMULA ONE JAPANESE GRAND PRIX: FERNANDO ALONSO took a second shock win of the season at yesterday's Japanese Grand Prix as the championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa was temporarily derailed by impetuosity, punishments and disputed points.

Alonso, who won the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix a fortnight ago, started from fourth yesterday and was gifted the lead of the race after a chaotic opening sequence of laps when Hamilton started a chain reaction of events that would eventually rob himself and Massa of points.

The championship-leading Briton had claimed an imperious pole position on Saturday but at the start of race made a poor getaway and was passed by the second-placed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen on the run down to the first corner.

Forced into reaction, Hamilton tried to dive down the inside of Raikkonen's car but left his braking far too late, smoking both tyres and running wide, an error that forced Raikkonen off circuit, which in turn forced McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and fifth-placed Massa to also take evasive action and leave the track.

By the time they had recovered, Hamilton was sixth and chasing down Massa just ahead.

The chaos left the road open for BMW's Robert Kubica to take the lead, closely followed by Alonso.

"The start was probably the most exciting I have seen in motor racing," Alonso said. "The drivers in front of me were very aggressive in turn one and even I dropped the tyres and went a little bit wide. I think it surprised us. We locked up the tyres and everyone went long.

"I took the benefit of that and the race was a little bit easier after that."

Behind the pair though, more action was unfolding. On the next lap Massa ran wide into the Turn 10 chicane, allowing Hamilton to slip past and into fifth, but the Ferrari fought back across the kerbs at the second part of the corner.

They collided and Hamilton was knocked into a spin as Massa rolled on. Minutes later the announcement came: both men had incurred drive-through penalties for aggressive driving. Both dropped to the rear of the field.

At the front, however, Kubica held a narrow lead over Alonso and third-placed Kovalainen, though the McLaren driver was soon pressured by a resurgent Raikkonen. The gap remained inflexible through the leaders' first stint but in the opening pitstop, Alonso made his move, a spectacular long-shot gamble that would eventually hand him victory.

"We were P2 when we stopped the first time and I asked the team if we could manage to exit the pits in front of Robert because I wanted some free air," Alonso said. "So they had to do less fuel. The problem is that you have to open a gap in the second stint and sometimes you can do it and sometimes not, but today the car was perfect and I was able to do it."

With Kubica fuelled for a longer stint the gap the Spaniard needed to establish was cavernous but the Alonso of past weeks has been that of his double title years. At the wheel of a Renault that has constantly improved throughout 2008 he was faultless and fast.

By the time he pitted for the second and final time on lap 43, he had established a 13-second lead over Kubica and an 18-second advantage over Raikkonen, who had risen to third after Kovalainen's engine failed.

Alonso's second improbable victory of the year was complete.

"It's difficult to believe," said Alonso afterwards. "Obviously the Singapore win was completely unexpected after a very sad Saturday coming from retirement in qualifying.

"Okay, I won with special conditions with the safety car there, but today we had nothing and we won again and at a circuit that is not particularly good for our characteristics. I cannot believe it right now, back-to-back wins. This is something completely amazing."

For Hamilton it was a less than an amazing afternoon. In Monza, a month ago, the McLaren driver had been able to convert a dire 15th place on the grid into a points-scoring seventh but at the Fuji Speedway yesterday he could do no better than 12th following the penalty that dropped him to the back of the field.

"You can always look back and wish you'd done something (differently) - I made a mistake and I paid for it," he said of the first-corner incident with Raikkonen.

The price, initially, a solitary point lost after Massa managed to clamber up to eighth, but following the race the Brazilian was elevated to seventh after judges ruled in his favour following a late-race collision with Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais.

The Frenchman was exiting the pitlane after his second stop as Massa raced toward the first corner. The two ran side by side toward the turn and Massa attempted to go wide around the side but they collided, sending Massa into a spin. Bourdais was handed a 25-second penalty, which dropped him from his sixth-place finish to 10th and handed Massa a much-needed point.

Bourdais was furious with the penalty. "For me it's very clear," he said. "Yes, I exit the pits, yes, I'm supposed to be careful and I was. I stayed inside and I didn't push him out. I did everything I could not to run into him and he just squeezed and turned and behaved like I didn't exist. What am I supposed to do?

"I don't think I have done anything wrong on this one and unfortunately it ruins the weekend, takes away three points for the team and gives Felipe another point - I am really happy for him, obviously!"

Massa was unapologetic: "I think there's little to say. I had already entered the turn and he hit me from behind, spinning me round."

Toro Rosso's race was not, however, totally compromised, with Bourdais's team-mate Sebastian Vettel elevated to sixth by the penalty, finishing behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota and the fourth-placed second Renault of Nelson Piquet.

Hamilton heads to next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai with just a five-point lead over Massa. Despite the setback the Briton attempted to put a gloss on the afternoon.

"There are positives to take from today," he said. "I've only lost two points to Felipe in the drivers' championship, so it's definitely not over. Now I'll forget today ever happened and move forward.

"We've got two more races to go and my target is still to win both of them."