Patronise F1

This victory was as straightforward as they came for Hamilton, and the contrasts with his error-strewn drive a week ago in Japan could not have been greater. This time he made a near-perfect getaway to lead from Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari at the start, he used the fact that the Ferraris took a while to get comfortable on their fresh tyres to extend a six second lead in no time at all, and then controlled the race through to the checkered flag. It was easily his most assured performance since his third place (neé victory) in the Belgian Grand Prix many moons ago, and indeed as any Hamiltonista worth his salt will tell you, had he not been penalised to such an extent there, he would already be the world champion. But then, had he shown a bit more patience there, he would not have been penalised.

Patience was something that most viewers would have needed in spades during the Chinese race. After the chaos of Singapore and Fuji, this was F1 at it's somnolent worst. Whether or not the cars, the track or the drivers were at fault for the lack of spice, or (as is more likely), it was just one of those days, this race won't be contributing a massive number of clips to the end of season review.

Behind Hamilton's dominant drive, his title rivals barely mustered a whimper of a challenge between them. Robert Kubica was badly out of place after his nightmare qualifying performance, and was really relying on a chaotic afternoon ahead of him to keep his slim hopes alive. That didn't transpire, and the Pole could only recover to a disappointing 6th place by the end of the race, behind his team mate Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso's Renault. The former champion put in another fine performance here, and proved that (in his hands, at least), Renault now seem to be ahead of BMW in the F1 pecking order.

Felipe Massa was also tailing his team mate for most of the race. The Brazilian seemed out of sorts all weekend, and his afternoon of toil was only helped in the closing stages, when Kimi Raikkonen allowed him through into second place and the extra couple of championship points that keep his hopes nearer to "achievable" than "mathematical". After the race, with the ridiculous "ban" on team orders still existing in the FIA rulebook, Raikkonen remained circumspect about the situation ("I know what we want as a team and that's what we did. It's normal in those situations.") while Massa's reaction seemed slightly more spurious ("I was strong enough to catch and pass [Raikkonen] and that was the best part of the race for me."). Whether he was concerned about being penalised for breaking the rules and so was trying to paint a canvas of obfuscation over the incident or not is unclear, but really and truly even the most passionate of anti-Ferrari bandwagoners would more than happily accept that the team did the right thing.

Elsewhere, with McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and BMW dominant in the low-attrition race, only Timo Glock broke into the points for Toyota in 7th place, rounding off a solid afternoon for the German. His team mate may have been hopeful of some points as well, but Trulli collided with The Toro Rosso of Sebastien Bourdais on the opening lap and damaged his car enough to retire. After the race, Trulli was angry with the Frenchman, but replays seemed to show the incident was more 50/50 than anything. Still, perhaps "Pin the blame on Bourdais" is the new paddock game of choice. All this allowed Nelson Piquet to come through and take the final point, though the Brazilian's joy at the result may well have been tempered by the fact that he ended the day nearly 40 seconds behind his team mate.

The only driver from the top four teams not to make it into the points was Heikki Kovalainen, who was again blighted with a combination of a lack of pace and an even greater lack of luck. The Finn wasn't exactly setting the world alight in his performance when he suffered a puncture that dropped him back into the lower reaches of the order from 5th place, before he finally retired for good on lap 50 when his Mercedes motor expired. The only glimmer of happiness from all that is that he is now guaranteed a new engine for the final race, in which he'll need to up his performance if McLaren are to grab the constructors prize.

Outside of the points sat Sebastian Vettel in 9th and David Coulthard in 10th, both enduring quiet afternoons. Both of their team mates failed to turn in recovery drives of note. Bourdais never really got back up to speed after his collision with Trulli, while Webber was on a hiding to nothing all afternoon, having started from 16th with the fuel load of a 6th placed car following his ten place penalty. He charged through the field early on, but was forced to pit as early as lap 12, and then got stuck behind Kazuki Nakajima's Williams, who came home in 12th and some way clear of his team mate Nico Rosberg. The German had aimed for a different strategy to the Japanese man but it completely failed and he ended up 15th, a lap down.

Honda continued to struggle, though Barrichello's 11th place was perhaps better than the car deserved. The Brazilian veteran is doing everything he can to prove to the team that he is worth another season in the sport, and given that Jenson Button ended the day behind everyone save Giancarlo Fisichella's Force India, you could argue that should Honda sign Bruno Senna or Alonso for next year, they should probably do so in place of the Brit rather than the Brazilian. Fisi was the last man across the line, while his team mate Sutil was the only other retirement, joining Trulli and Kovalainen on the sidelines.

As races go then, the result was far more important, and indeed interesting, that the road taken to it. While few people will remember the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix for any particular length of time, Lewis Hamilton may well be an exception to that rule. On the back of some deserved criticism following his Japanese shambles, he dominated this weekend, topping every session save Saturday practice, and now heads for the final round in Brazil knowing that fifth place would be enough to secure the title, no matter what the man in the Ferrari can manage.

The hope for Massa? Well that last sentence accurately summed up last seasons championship fight ahead of the final race, and yet it was the trailing man in the Ferrari that ended up coming out on top. This one may not be over just yet.

Drivers Championship Standings -
1 Hamilton 94pts, 2 Massa 87pts, 3 Kubica 75pts, 4 Raikkonen 69pts, 5 Heidfeld 60pts, 6 Alonso 53pts, 7 Kovalainen 51pts, 8 Vettel, Trulli 30pts, 10 Glock 22pts, 11 Webber 21pts, 12 Piquet Jr 19pts, 13 Rosberg 17pts, 14 Barrichello 11pts, 15 Nakajima 9pts, 16 Coulthard 8pts, 17 Bourdais 4pts, 18 Button 3pts.

Constructors Championship Standings -
1 Ferrari 156pts, 2 McLaren-Mercedes 145pts, 3 BMW Sauber 135pts, 4 Renault 72pts, 5 Toyota 52pts, 6 Toro Rosso-Ferrari 34pts, 7 Red Bull-Renault 29pts, 8 Williams-Toyota 26pts, 9 Honda 14pts.