Formula 1 World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton admitted after his disastrous Japanese Grand Prix today that he ha🥃d 'made a mistake and paid for it' - but he insisted he would be changing nothing in his seeming 'win-or-bust' approach to the ꦑfinal two races of the campaign.

With the pressure beginning to tell and performances that made them look more like subjects off Driving School than F1 front-runners, both Hamilton and principal title rival Felipe Massa committed serious errors at Fuji, and with the Ferrari man having nicked the last marker from Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber just a handful of laps from home, the gap between the pair heading to th🗹e Chinese Grand Prix next weekend has come down from seven points to six.

Hamilton's race in fact unravelled right at the start, when he made a poor getaway and in attempting to compensate for it left his braking far too late into turn one, forcing fellow front row sitter Kimi Raikkonen almost off-track and badly flat-spotting his own tyres in the process. Only the previous day BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica had accused his former friend of having been 'too aggressive' and 'dangerous' on a number of occasions already this year [see separate story - 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:click here].

Just a ♉lap later, a mistake from Massa enabled the Briton to dive up the inside of the scarlet machine, but a♋s the Brazilian kept his foot firmly in across the grass, he T-boned Hamilton on the exit, tipping the McLaren-Mercedes into a spin and down to the very rear of the field.

Both drivers would subsequently receive drive-through penalties for their respective misdemeanours, and Hamilt🤡on - unlike Massa - struggled to display any great pace thereafter, eventually coming home a lowly and point-less twelfth. Having stated pre-race that he had 'sacrificed so much more than I👍 did last year' in 2008, he has now sacrificed rather more still.

"You can always look back and wish you did something else," he reflected in a post-race moment of humility on ITV, acceptin📖g the blame for his move on Raikkonen whilst suggesting that Massa had deserved a rather harsher punishment for his manoeuvre - in a climate in which many within the sport believe Ferrari all-too often get off more lightly than their rivꦍals, particularly McLaren.

"I made a mistake and I p♌aid for it. This sort of thing happens; you've just got to keep your head up and keep going.

"We (Ha🌄milton and Massa) both got the same penalty, but I didn't hit anyone and he did. I guess that's just the name of the game."

Though he had previously vowed to take things more c🦩onservatively from hereon in, Hamilton was also keen to point out that his objective in Shanghai and Interlagos remains the top step of the podium on both occasions - even if, in striving for a similar goal in China this time twelve months ago, he arguably destroyed his championship🎃 chances.

"I don't think iꩵt makes any difference," the Stevenage-born star mused of Massa having reduced his advantage slightly in the chase for the crown. "I lost one point today, which I guess is damage limitation, and we'll move on to next week.

"We will still be just as coꦆmpetitive, and we're going to make sure we win the last two races - not at any cost, but we plan on winning."