Hamilton on brink of title after victory

(CNN) -- McLaren's Lewis Hamilton stands on the brink of becoming the youngest-ever Formula One world champion after a stunning pole-to-flag victory in Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

Hamilton drove faultlessly to claim his fifth win of the season and ninth of his 34-race career.

With Ferrari duo Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen claiming second and third, Hamilton now holds a seven-point cushion over Massa, ahead of the final race of the year on the Brazilian's home track of Interlagos in a fortnight.

That means the 23-year-old Briton only needs to finish in fifth position to secure the title.

BMW's Robert Kubica finished sixth, ending his slim title chances.

Renault's Fernando Alonso finished fourth, ahead of the BMW pair of Nick Heidfeld and Kubica. Toyota's Timo Glock was seventh and Renault's Nelson Piquet Jr. got the final point.

By way of a coincidence, Hamilton led by seven points to Raikkonen last year when the Briton suffered heartbreak as he lost out to the Finn by a single point.

"This is another step to the championship and towards my and the team's dream," said Hamilton. "The team deserve it, we've worked really hard."

The control Hamilton showed in Shanghai was in stark contrast to his problems in Fuji last week when he trailed in 12th after a mistake at the first corner.

"Our approach to this race was right," continued Hamilton. "It wasn't to go out and win everything in this race -- it was to look at both races and score as many points collectively.

"Going to Brazil, it will be a much different situation to last year. We will be a lot more competitive than we are here. We know we've got to do a good job because Massa and Raikonnen will be pushing us hard."

Massa appeared downcast afterwards and acknowledged Ferrari's best efforts were not enough. "I didn't have a good start. We just stayed in the same positions.

"Lewis was a bit stronger in the beginning -- he just started pulling away and this make his race more comfortable. For us we were driving on the limit trying to reduce the gap but it was not possible.

"Lewis had a better car for the whole weekend. I think for the championship it was not fantastic but for the constructors title it was very good."