Lewis Hamilton's bid to become Formula One's first rookie World champion remained on track on Friday after stewards cleared him of blame for a collision in Japan last weekend.

"No penalty is imposed upon him," they said in a statement.  The 22-year-old McLaren driver, with Red Bull's Mark Webber and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, met stewards at the Chinese GP to review video footage of a collision during the Fuji race won by the Briton.

Hamilton had turned up for the first free practice at the Shanghai circuit amid speculation that he could face a 10 place penalty on the starting grid or worse for the penultimate race of the season.  The Briton leads team-mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso by 12 points with two races remaining. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen is 17 points behind Hamilton and the only other driver still mathematically in contention.