Formula One news

KERS failure hinders Hamilton

World Champion Lewis Hamilton again suffered technical problems with his Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) in Japan. Having suffered an intermittent problem in Marina Bay last weekend, the McLaren driver settled for third at Suzuka on Sunday after defending from a hard-charging Kimi Räikkönen.

Having made full use of the power-boosting KERS device to shoot into second place from third on the grid, Hamilton eventually slipped back behind Jarno Trulli in Japan following the final round of pit-stops. With a late-race Safety Car throwing more variables into the mix, a broken KERS allowed Räikkönen's Ferrari to challenge for the final podium position.

"We had a great race," said Hamilton, who is now just 2 points behind his championship predecessor for fifth in the standings. "I tried to get both of them (Vettel and Trulli) but was unable to do so as they had a great start - Sebastian pulled away pretty fast and I couldn't match these two in the first sector.

"Just after the last stop I lost my KERS, so that was costing us a few tenths per lap; once Trulli got in front of me it was impossible to keep up." The week has been a productive one for Hamilton, however, who collects the most points of any driver (16) from the back-to-back Asian races in Singapore and Japan.

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