As the F1 season draws nearer to an end, with Lewis Hamilton even closer to winning the drivers 2007 grand prix and a rookie driver, the long knives are chasing him with more belligerence than previously thought possible.

Not only is it enough that Alonso has allegedly inferred that he has damning evidence that Hamilton “has a lot of Ferrari” in his car; that Lewis’ car is tweaked and doctored to ensure he will win; and that Hamilton has been given preferential treatment.

Now there is an enquiry into Lewis Hamilton’s driving in Japan being erratic and dangerous as he “veers to the left and slows down” the stewards in the race claimed that his sudden deceleration ahead of Webber and Vettel caused the crash.

A Japanese tourist captured the incident on camera, and personally although its clear that Hamilton almost overtakes the safety car before almost stopping on the outside of the track, I think Vettel is to blame – whatever Vettel was thinking about Lewis’ actions, he should have been watching ahead of himself and keeping distance from Webber as they were not racing at the time. Lewis’ driving had been cautious in the 20 laps beforehand and he was break checking throughout the race.

You can judge for yourself:

Last Sunday saw another great victory for Lewis and an increasing chance that he will take the Drivers Championship after all. Lewis showed his amazing ability to get in his “zone” again at the Fuji Speedway, no noise, controversy or lashing rain could make any difference, even being barged off the track by Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber.

Alonso fell victim to the rain, crashing out midway through the race, and Ferrari were hampered by a bad choice of tyres – apparently missing an email that instructed all teams to run Bridgestone’s extreme wet weather tyres. A few papers have commented that it was unusual that the FIA, took it upon itself to issue an ambiguous statement (rather than leaving it to the stewards), which effectively said that Ferrari would not receive any post-race punishment for their clear transgression: Clearly there decision to use any other tyre in this case hindered their progress in the race, so while they did not heed the FIA’s advice they suffered the result, and that was punishment enough.

If Lewis does achieve his destiny this year – it will be a fantastic one albeit tainted by the squabbling and espionage surrounding the 2007 grand prix. While none of the controversy has much to do with Lewis himself – as a young recruit of Mclaren’s he does carry a lot of association with their brand. His reputation will inevitably continue to be damaged in some part every time McLaren are seen to transgress.

Lets hope McLaren can pull themselves away from the mudslinging so their and our posterboy can continue to shine in the future.