Hamilton fifth as Button wins

• Vettel crowned world champion

SUZUKA, Japan (CMC-ANS):

Lewis Hamilton missed out on a podium finish once again, settling for fifth, as McLaren-Mercedes teammate Jenson Button won yesterday's Japanese Grand Prix and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel came third to clinch his second World Championship title.

Hamilton, the British race-car driver with Grenadian heritage, was fortunate to finish in the same position he did in the previous race in Singapore, after he recovered two major setbacks.

The 26-year-old Hamilton was setback by a slow leak in his right rear tyre that was not detected for a number of laps, leading him to pit during the eighth lap and forcing McLaren to make changes to their strategy that changed his approach to the race.

For the second straight race, Hamilton collided with Felipe Massa. He knocked the right front-wing endplate of the Brazilian's Ferrari in the 24th lap.

"For me it was a disaster of a race, a bit of a shocking race to be honest and another tough weekend," said Hamilton.

"Clearly our car is fast enough to win, as Jenson proved with a remarkable race, but I was nowhere near fast enough to compete with anyone."

He added: "My job, my hope, is to pick up some pace from somewhere, but I was just struggling, I didn't have any grip. I'm gob-smacked to be honest, but that's the way it goes. We will work as hard as we can to try and pick up the pace.

"I'm just going to keep my head up, keep going, not give up and hopefully, in the next race, I'll have another chance."

Third victory

For Button, it was his third victory of the season and it came on a circuit which was most demanding on tyres. Vettel had the race lead for the first 20 laps, but pit-stop strategy and high-tyre degradation pushed him behind Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

Vettel now stands on an unassailable 324 points in the world drivers' championship with four races remaining in South Korea (Octobe 16), India (October 30), Abu Dhabi (November 13) and Brazil (November 27).

Button is second on the ladder with 210, followed by Alonso on 202, Mark Webber, Vettel's teammate on 194 and Hamilton on 178.

The result also meant that the Red Bulls increased their aggregate in the constructors' championship to 518, with McLaren second on 388 and Ferrari third on 292.