Entering the fifteenth round of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship, Lewis Hamilton led his McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso by two points. Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen was 11 points behind Alonso. Ferrari had been confirmed as Constructors' Champions following their Belgian Grand Prix one-two.
The race featured three Japanese constructors—Toyota, Honda, and Super Aguri—and two Japanese drivers, Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto. David Coulthard changed his helmet design for this race, using the helmet design of former World Rally Champion Colin McRae, who had died two weeks before the race.
Qualifying took place in drying but wet conditions, requiring all drivers to use wet tyres. Lewis Hamilton secured the fifth pole position of his career, joined on the front row by Fernando Alonso. The Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa qualified third and fourth.
The session was marked by a collision between Ralf Schumacher and Sakon Yamamoto at the end of the first session. Although Schumacher advanced to Q2, his car was too damaged to participate, leaving him 16th on the grid. Sebastian Vettel achieved eighth place, which was the best qualifying result for Toro Rosso at that time. Nico Rosberg qualified sixth but received a ten-place grid penalty for an engine change.
The race began under torrential rain and misty conditions behind a safety car, which led the field for the first 19 laps. Ferrari started on standard wet tyres, while other teams used "extreme wet" tyres. Both Ferrari drivers were forced to pit for the correct tyres during the early safety car period, dropping them to 20th and 21st positions.
When the safety car withdrew, Hamilton and Alonso led the field. Sebastian Vettel moved into third after Nick Heidfeld and Jenson Button collided. Mark Webber, despite suffering from food poisoning and vomiting inside his helmet during the safety car period, moved into fourth. Alexander Wurz retired on the first racing lap following a collision with Felipe Massa.
On lap 41, Fernando Alonso crashed out of the race due to aquaplaning, marking the first time a McLaren failed to finish during the 2007 season. This brought out a second safety car. During this period on lap 45, Vettel crashed into the rear of Webber while the latter was running in second place. Both drivers retired. Vettel had earlier become the youngest ever driver to lead a lap of a Formula One race, at 20 years and 89 days old.
Heikki Kovalainen inherited second place and successfully defended the position against Kimi Räikkönen to secure his first career podium and Renault's only podium of the season. Felipe Massa secured sixth place after a battle with Robert Kubica. Vitantonio Liuzzi finished eighth on track but received a 25-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. This promoted Adrian Sutil to eighth, earning the first and only championship point for the Spyker team.
The event was heavily criticized for organizational failures at the Fuji Speedway. Heavy fog on Saturday grounded the medical helicopter, forcing the abandonment of free practice. Transportation issues were severe; a road collapse at the east gate on Saturday left 20,000 spectators stranded for over four hours. On Sunday, many fans missed the start of the race due to shuttle bus delays.
The circuit faced further criticism for "Toyota bias." Fuji Speedway, owned by Toyota, prohibited spectators from displaying flags or banners for any team except Toyota.
The race was the first of only two modern Grands Prix held at Fuji before the event returned to Suzuka) in 2009. The organizational failures led to legal action on 16 June 2008, when 109 spectators filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court seeking 32 million yen in compensation for health issues and missed race time caused by the shuttle bus delays.
According to the 2007 Formula One World Championship standings, Lewis Hamilton led the drivers' standings after the Japanese Grand Prix. For detailed standings, see 2007 Formula One World Championship.
The article is based solely on the provided corpus and 2007 Formula One World Championship. No external sources were consulted beyond these. The corpus includes information from the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship and reports from the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix.
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