Sebastian Vettel had the best possible weekend, winning the Japanese Grand Prix in emphatic fashion, and seeing championship leader Fernando Alonso crash out before the race had even really started.
The win took Vettel to within four points of Alonso, who led the championship by 29 points going into Suzuka. Alonso's teammate Felipe Massa finished in second place, while home favorite Kamui Kobayashi pulled off a brilliant third.
Red Bull's Vettel, who started the race on pole, led pretty much from start to finish, but it was not so lucky for Alonso. The Ferrari driver brushed against Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen, spinning into the gravel with a left-rear tyre puncture in the first corner.
That disaster meant Vettel now has 190 points, to Alonso's 194 in what looks like being a two-horse race for the championship, with five races remaining. Raikkonen is third in the table with 157 points, while Hamilton is on 152.
"It's been a fantastic weekend," defending champion Vettel said. "Yesterday's qualifying was perfect and today again, the balance of the car was amazing. We didn't change too much at the stops, it just seemed to work fantastically well.
"I'm very happy, the guys have been pushing very hard and even though we didn't have major upgrades here, it still seemed to come together and the balance was there -- and that's what made the difference today.
"It's a shame for Alonso, it's not something you hope for and it could happen to us at the next race. We've seen this year there are a lot of ups and downs and things change quickly -- we have to keep our heads down and take it step by step."
Despite the win, Vettel said anything was still possible in a tight race for the title. "I'm very careful on this obviously, in terms of championships this race was a big step and it helped us but we see how quickly things can change," the two-time champion said.
"Look at the last... I don't know how many races there were since the summer break but four or five; we had a DNF in Monza, if you look last year we had only one race where we didn't finish, so obviously this year is entirely different for everyone.
"It seems that we are more on the limit, trying to find a step in the right direction, and that's true for everyone, so it's much closer. Every weekend can be different and instead of then having a bad weekend and still finishing fourth or fifth, you might then be only tenth, because of guys like Sauber and Kamui, Sergio and other guys - the Lotus is very strong this year - so they all keep scoring consistently but obviously one of us at some point has to park and watch the race from the outside, which is not nice and something you don't hope for.
"That is why I say I want to be very careful because it's still a long way ahead and there's a lot of things that can happen. I think it was important for us, obviously we did have some pace this weekend and important for us to make use of that."
Alonso was understandably disappointed with the outcome of the weekend, but chose to look at the positives. "Today, we were very unlucky -- to finish a race like this, at the very first corner is really a shame," he said. "Contact from Raikkonen caused a puncture to the left rear tyre and my race ended there.
"Unfortunately, when you start in the middle of the pack, these things can happen, because apart from the performance of the car -- and ours is usually better on Sunday -- circumstances can count for a lot.
"That could be seen from Felipe's race, who started tenth, but produced a perfect race, fighting with the fastest cars. Clearly, this result has practically wiped out the advantage I had before, but if I'd been told at the start of the season that we would have been in this situation five races from the end, I'd have happily signed for it."
