Massa heads Ferrari one-two to revive title hopes

Felipe Massa needed a win in Bahrain, and all weekend he looked like a man who had come to get it. When the red lights went out at the start, he lit off from the front row of the grid, and that was all she wrote as he dominated in style for Ferrari.

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica lost second place to Kimi Raikkonen on the third lap, and from then on, pit stops apart, it was an easy one-two for Ferrari.

The start also set the pattern for McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. He was very slow away, and ended the opening lap in 10th place. Then he clobbered the back of Fernando Alonso’s Renault, and the resultant pit stop for a new nose put him into a cycle of running a heavy fuel load in traffic for the rest of a frustrating afternoon in which he took only 13th place and lost his world championship points lead.

In Ferrari’s wake, BMW Sauber showed that they had the speed to beat McLaren, Nick Heidfeld pushing hard after his team mate to take fourth place, having set fastest lap at one stage before Heikki Kovalainen annexed it during an undramatic drive to fifth in a McLaren that simply wasn’t fast enough.

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli grabbed sixth and held on to it comfortably from Red Bull’s Mark Webber and Williams’ Nico Rosberg, who completed the points scorers.

Alonso survived his brush with Hamilton to take 10th place, unable to stay with ninth-placed Timo Glock in the second Toyota, and by the finish he had a hungry Rubens Barrichello breathing down his neck in the Honda. The Brazilian had earlier fought with and beaten fast-starting Giancarlo Fisichella, who took 12th ahead of Hamilton for Force India.

Kazuki Nakajima was a lacklustre 14th for Williams, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais and the battling Super Aguri teamsters Anthony Davidson and Takuma Sato. David Coulthard was delayed in an early incident and finished 18th for Red Bull, ahead of Adrian Sutil in the second Force India.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel retired on the first lap with a mechanical problem, while Jenson Button’s hopes were dashed by the need for a pit stop for damage repair at the end of the opening lap, and another after a passing move on Coulthard went drastically wrong.

The other non-finisher was Nelson Piquet, whose Renault succumbed to mechanical problems.

The result puts Raikkonen into the lead of the world championship for drivers with 19 points, ahead of Heidfeld on 16, Hamilton, Kubica and Kovalainen on 14, and Massa on 10. In the constructors’ chase, BMW Sauber lead with 30, ahead of Ferrari on 29 and McLaren on 28.

6.4.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Ferrari, Massa    ▪ www.formula1.com