The circuit where Lewis Hamilton drove to within touching distance of becoming Formula One world champion yesterday gets its name from the active volcano that overlooks it, the almost perfectly shaped Mount Fuji, which has not blown its top since 1707.

With his majestic performance in the rain on a day when the mountain was permanently lost in the clouds and fog, Hamilton’s detonation under Formula One looks to be closer than the beautiful mountain’s next eruption.

With a 12-point lead over his deadly rival, Fernando Alonso, the British rookie who has captured the imagination of a new generation of fans – not just in Britain but all over the world - could blow the roof off the sport as early as next weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix, in Shanghai.

Hamilton would then become the first rookie world champion in history, the youngest world champion, the first from a mixed-race background and the first British champion since Damon Hill in 1996.

It is easy to get carried away, of course, because anything could happen next week. Hamilton may fail to finish and Alonso may well win the race in China; then they would head for a showdown in the final race, the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in three weeks time, only two points apart.

One man not getting too carried away in Japan yesterday was the individual, apart from Hamilton himself, who has played the biggest role in this fairytale, his father, Anthony. Like his son, Hamilton Sr knows how to keep his feet firmly on the ground.

Speaking in the McLaren hospitality area minutes after the race ended, he said neither he nor his son would be celebrating. It would be back to the hotel for a meal and then early to bed, ready for the flight to China today. “I’m going to wait until it’s all over and see where we end up because you can quite easily get egg on your face, can’t you?” he said.

“Although we’ve won today, I’m still feeling the same as I was before. It’s kind of you’ve got to wait until you’ve brought it home – when you’ve brought it home, then it’s all different. Anything could happen, there are still two races left. We just need to make sure we stay on the circuit and get some points.”

The impressive aspect about his son’s performance, not just in a chaotic race but throughout a dominant weekend against Alonso, was how he was able to reverse the momentum against the Spaniard who had beaten him in each of the past three races. It had seemed that Alonso’s greater experience was starting to tell and Hamilton’s talent alone would not be enough to stop him.

His father revealed that the seeds of the renaissance in his son’s fortunes were sown immediately after the last race at Spa Francorchamps, in Belgium. “We had a long chat on the Sunday night after Spa,” he said. “Then we had a long chat on Monday and I said ‘OK, why don’t you just go down to the factory [the McLaren Mercedes headquarters in Woking] and have a look at your data, have a look at your set-up. Just kind of figure out where you think you’re going wrong, if you are going wrong.’ ”

It seems that this did the trick, as Hamilton cleared his mind of all that had gone before and re-focussed on his strengths, adopting a more instinctive approach to his technical preparation and letting the performance come to him, as opposed to trying to force it. “You can’t learn too much too soon,” his father said. “You’ve got to turn up at the circuit with nothing in your mind and get in the car. If it goes well, great, if not, ask your engineer and not get too complicated, trying to figure it out. He came here feeling confident, and we were also confident because he has put the work in over the last couple of weeks.”

Hamilton Sr has seen his son race in every class from karts onwards, but he believes that the Japanese Grand Prix yesterday was one of his most impressive wins, coming as it did at the business end of the season in the toughest formula in motor sport. “I think it’s one of his best ever drives,” he said. “I mean, anything could have happened. You’ve got double world champions in grief, you’ve got other kinds of Ferrari favourites in grief. Yes, we did quite well, I think.

“It’s great for everybody, not just us. I think for the UK, for the world and for everybody who just likes motor sport and just likes, let’s say, underdogs – it’s brilliant. I’m sure everybody else is jumping up and down. They must have been on the edge of their seats just like we were, because you never know what’s going to happen in that sort of weather.”