Gary's view – Japanese Grand Prix

"This was an entertaining race. In some ways, I'd rather have seen a more straightforward contest so that we could see who's really got the performance at the moment. On the other hand, if we had, I suspect we'd just have seen that McLaren and Ferrari are indeed completely dominant.

The McLaren use new tyres a bit better than the Ferrari, and they do better in qualifying as a result. When it comes to race day, Ferrari has the edge. That's been the situation for the last two years, more or less.

There will probably be a lot of talk about the first corner incident – the Make it happen moment of the race. A lot of people seem to feel that Lewis Hamilton is a bit more aggressive than necessary. There's a fine line between being a hard driver and having a 'win at all costs' approach. Having not got off the start line as well as he should – whether due to the car or himself – he should have protected his position. That's how you win world championships, but it's not what we saw in Japan. Lewis relied on others to survive: it would have been very easy for Kimi Raikkonen to turn in on him and finish his race.

Felipe Massa didn't drive a great race either. Both he and Hamilton are quite similar in some ways: young guys who have a chance to win their first F1 World Championship. And whoever you are, you're going to feel the pressure in that situation. But there's an important difference between them, because they have to employ different strategies.

Massa is five points down now. He has to close that gap, whatever the risks, and he has nothing to lose. Whereas Hamilton has everything to lose. He must score whatever points he can but, ultimately, if he spends the next two races staring at Massa's gearbox, he'll be world champion.

Massa executed his strategy at this race much better than Hamilton did. Admittedly, Massa's job is easier in many ways. Every racing driver wants to get out there and give it everything – that's why they're racing drivers in the first place. The last thing they want to hear is, 'You've got to drive at nine-tenths, be conservative and stay out of trouble.' But sometimes you have to have two brains.

Fernando Alonso's drive reminded me of the world champion driver that we saw in 2005 and 2006. In the middle of the race, we heard him asking his engineer who his main opponent was, which showed that he was calm and he was thinking ahead. He drove the middle stint – 20 laps or so – at qualifying pace, and just generally did a fantastically professional job. Neither Hamilton nor Massa is mature enough yet to match that kind of performance.

The team, or someone, should have a quiet word in Hamilton's ear. Okay, he's five points ahead, but lots of things can happen – like Heikki Kovalainen's engine blow-up that we saw in this race – and a five-point lead can disappear very quickly. And although all he needs to do is follow Massa home, that might not be so easy. Alonso is strong, so is Robert Kubica, and Raikkonen seems to have got himself back in some kind of form. So there could easily be three cars between them. Hamilton didn't even show his two years' worth of experience at the Fuji Speedway – but he really needs to start showing it in the last two races."