Lewis Hamilton is going to make us all feel a lot older before we feel happy. Having watched him throw away what would have been the first rookie World Championship in Formula One history to Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, last year, there is a horrible sense of déjà vu beginning to envelop the final races of this season.

After a frankly disastrous day in the Japanese Grand Prix at the Fuji Speedway yesterday, Hamilton seems to be stumbling towards the line just when he needs to be at his strongest. His impetuosity and untamed aggression in Japan left him without a point for the fourth time in 16 races. The British McLaren Mercedes driver has not won a race in six starts and his main rival, Felipe Massa, Raikkonen’s team-mate, is creeping closer. Even Robert Kubica, of BMW Sauber, who was second yesterday behind Fernando Alonso in the Renault, cannot be ruled out. He is 12 points off the lead.

The real damage inflicted this weekend may have been in the mind. Ferrari have seen exactly how to undo Hamilton’s composure. At Fuji, they sprang a trap called “Raikkonen” and Hamilton fell straight into it. Now they know exactly what they need to do in China on Sunday and in Brazil two weeks later. And with the fastest car on the track at their disposal, they have an excellent chance of using the reigning world champion to provoke Hamilton again.

Even though Massa did not have the most distinguished afternoon of his career and is five points adrift of the British driver, there was an unmistakable sense while watching him talking things through in the Ferrari hospitality area after the race that he was leaving Japan with the initiative in the title race. “Hamilton is the one who is cracking under pressure,” he may well think and “now we know how to beat him”.

This grand prix, as so often, was all about the first lap. Hamilton and McLaren had selected the wrong engine setting for his car at the start and, with a heavy fuel load on board, he was slow to get away from pole position, whereas Raikkonen flew off the line straight into the lead as the pair led a cavalry charge to the first corner. At this point, Hamilton should have reminded himself that he was not racing Raikkonen for the championship, but Massa, who was well behind, having started fifth. However, this was no time for rationality in the cockpit of car No 22.

The World Championship leader gambled with a kamikaze attempt to get past Raikkonen. The precise choreography of what happened at Turn 1 will take some untangling, but the stewards decided that Hamilton cut across Raikkonen as he out-braked himself, ultimately causing the Finn to run wide. Once again, Hamilton found himself with a drive-through penalty and once again he and McLaren made it quite clear that they thought the punishment was unfair and unwarranted. During that first-corner mêlée, David Coulthard crashed in his Red Bull, while Alonso and Kubica, who was sixth on the grid, took advantage to get to the front.

Hamilton’s tyres were heavily damaged by his big lock-up at Turn 1, but a lap later he decided to attack Massa as the Brazilian ran wide into the chicane. Hamilton went inside and ahead through the right-hander before Massa retaliated as the track swung left. With his left-hand wheels on the grass, he tried to get back on terms but Massa ended up hitting the McLaren amidships, sending Hamilton into a spin. It left him pointing the wrong way and consigned him to last place with his race effectively run.

The two championship rivals had no business tangling with each other and one accused the other of being at fault. Hamilton said that Massa had hit him on purpose — a serious charge. Massa denied that and claimed that Hamilton had pushed him off the track. The net result was a drive-through penalty for Massa, who was to finish seventh to Hamilton’s twelfth. Massa was given the benefit of the doubt by the stewards after a later incident on which he and Sébastien Bourdais, in the Toro Rosso, collided at Turn 1, 17 laps from the end.

With the championship contenders intent on making life difficult for themselves, this was Alonso’s day. The Spaniard has endured a difficult season at Renault, but for the second race in succession he showed the skills needed to seize the opportunity when it was presented to him, adding victory at Fuji to his win in the night race in Singapore.

He ran behind Kubica during a short first stint but drove imperiously in the middle section. There is no doubt that the Renault is getting closer to the pace of the leaders and it is looking increasingly likely that Alonso will resist the advances of Honda and stay with the French manufacturer for at least another year. Winning races makes that decision a great deal easier

“It’s still difficult to believe what we have done today,” Alonso said afterwards. “Winning in Singapore was unexpected, but we benefited from special conditions. Today we won again on a circuit that was not supposed to suit us. The team has really done a remarkable job to fight back this season and we are now the third-strongest team. It’s unbelievable and I am extremely happy.”

Mention in dispatches must go to Nelson Piquet Jr, Alonso’s Brazilian team-mate, whom few expect to be retained next year after a disappointing rookie season. Piquet drove steadily to finish fourth and, for a while, put up a reasonable show when threatening Raikkonen for third place, before settling for five points.