Ferrari's Felipe Massa held off the challenge of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in the Bahrain Grand Prix to win his first race of the season. The Brazilian led throughout but was pressured early and late in the race by Hamilton, the first man to take podiums in his first three Grands Prix. Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third after challenging Hamilton mid-race.
The result leaves Fernando Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton in a three-way tie on points at the top of the world standings, with Massa five behind. Massa needed a good result in Bahrain after disappointment in the first two races and there was no repeat of his poor start from pole in Malaysia last Sunday.
"The results in the first two races were not what I expected," said Massa. "Something was missing. But this time we put everything together. I'm really pleased."
Analysed coldly, Ferrari should have won, especially with Felipe Massa on the pole and the red cars’ known performance over race distances. Massa and Kimi Raikkonen tripped over themselves in Lewis Hamilton’s wake early on, before Massa compounded his weakness in the first corner by making mistakes in Turn Four, which ultimately led to him sliding into the gravel. Raikkonen admitted afterwards that Ferrari had to make a series of compromises with his engine, and with reduced straight-line speed the Finn was in no position in the first part of the race to do much about either of the silver arrows. Ferrari’s was a team loss. McLaren’s surprise success puts them into the lead of the world championship with 32 points to Ferrari’s 23.
"This is definitely a disappointing result. After a great qualifying yesterday, with Felipe on pole and Kimi third, we certainly expected better. The crucial points for getting a race win are grid position, the start, the strategy, reliability and obviously, the performance of the cars. Today, we did not manage a good start with Felipe, who later, in an effort to catch up, went off track and dropped to fifth place, thus compromising his race. Kimi was also overtaken at the start and from then on was unable to do anything about it."
Felipe Massa:
"It was a very tough race in which we suffered a lot. It was almost impossible to overtake. I tried to attack Lewis, but I made a mistake and ended up off the track. The race did not go the way we had expected and our pace was slower than we had expected."
McLaren went into the Malaysian Grand Prix in confident frame of mind, but even Fernando Alonso said it was a surprise as he and Lewis Hamilton turned on a crushing demonstration in which they left Ferrari for dead in the opening stages and swept to the team’s first one-two result since Brazil 2005. At the start Alonso sprinted alongside polesitter Felipe Massa and was able to take the lead, but in another brilliant display Hamilton dived inside Kimi Raikkonen to #### third place before going round the outside of Felipe Massa in Turn Two to move up to second. The Englishman then contained the Ferrari challenge, earning his spurs with a faultless drive, as his team leader went for the win.
Fernando Alonso: "I think one of our chances to win the race was to be first after the first corner and thanks to a good start, thanks to the car, I was able to arrive side-by-side into the first corner. I was on the inside part so I managed to be first and to be sure, to have my team-mate second makes things easier, for sure, to open a gap."
Lewis Hamilton: "That was the most difficult race I’ve ever had. To see two Ferraris behind you, two red blobs in the mirrors, knowing that they’re slightly lighter than you and slightly quicker than you, it’s very, very difficult to keep them behind. Felipe had a couple of moves, I think he tried into turn four a couple of times, but fortunately I was able to trick him into out-braking himself and get my car stopped and it was very fortunate that I was able to cut across and get back in front of him, to the point where he eventually went off, so I apologise for that but at the end of the day, we got the points, so it doesn’t really matter. And then I had Kimi hunting me down for most of the race and phew, I just can’t explain to you how tough it was.
It’s extremely hot in the cockpit, sweating a lot, I ran out of water halfway through the race, I didn’t have enough water and so it was tricky, it was tricky, and I was getting hotter and hotter throughout the race. It would have been nice to have been a bit further ahead in the last stint but I had to keep pushing to the last lap and that’s what I did. I didn’t make any mistakes. I think the team did a fantastic job preparing the car this weekend. They work extremely long hours, I think longer than most other teams and also back to the factory: you’ve done a fantastic job so well done."
Kimi Raikkonen: "Of course I’m happy to get some points but a bit disappointed how the race ended up. The whole weekend was quite difficult but I think we needed to compromise too many things and we lost too much speed because of those things, but it was one of those weekends where we needed to do what was most important and try to get as many points as we could. We just didn’t have enough speed today and couldn’t do much more.
Ferrari faced an afternoon of trying to salvage something from what was beginning to look like a disaster, for Massa failed on both occasions when he tried to oust Hamilton. Each time he was repassed easily by the British driver, and on the second occasion the Brazilian slid into the gravel on the exit to Turn Four and lost a crucial place to Nick Heidfeld’s BMW Sauber.
It's Ferrari vs McLaren up front. The animals came in two by two at the front of the grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday, as the final session of qualifying developed into a last-lap shoot-out between McLaren and Ferrari. Kimi Raikkonen was the first to cross the start/finish line, temporarily snatching the coveted pole position with 1m 35.479s for Ferrari. But McLaren’s Fernando Alonso grabbed that away immediately, following him across the line mere feet behind and stopping the clocks in 1m 35.310s. Lewis Hamilton was next across in 1m 36.045s to secure fourth, but then Felipe Massa put things beyond reach with 1m 35.043s to restore Ferrari’s supremacy. The closeness of the times, however, and the fact that they were all set on Bridgestone’s softer compound, bodes well for a great race on Sunday.
Clearly there were some unhappy people out there - notably the Renault and Honda drivers but the potential battle between Ferrari and McLaren in what is always a very tough encounter should make for a memorable 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix.
OK. I know I am weird. But, yes I also follow F1 racing. With Juan Pablo Montoya moving to NASCAR this year, I pledged my allegiance to Reubens Barrichello.
Yes, it is true many "Americans" do not watch F1 because few "Americans" participate in it. Six years ago, when I started following the sport there were no "Americans", so I picked a South American among five racers I chose to follow. Now this "American" has worked his way up to my number one spot (I am sure he is just thrilled about that).
You may have missed it, or forgotten, but Reubens is the fine young gentleman (turn on sarcasm detector it's going to get worse) that pulled over to allow that fantastic German racer, Michael Schumacher to win a race about three years ago after being given team orders to do so. Of course, gentleman that he is, Schumacher practically insisted Reubens hold the trophy on the podium as Reubens played along to a small degree, smiled sheepishly, and acted much to gentlemanly himself to hold Michael's trophy (pull on hip waders, Shinola may be getting deeper).
Of course later in the season, after he had the championship clinched, Michael pulled over to let Reubens win a race thus returning the favor (yeah right) [If it didn't happen this way just play along with me huh, if it did please verify my recollection. After all, I can not be sure this is all correct since I slept since then. But at any rate, it makes a good story, doesn't it (rhetorial question, does not require a response, naturally, positive feedback would be appreciated [no, I know nothing about ebay]).
This is not your father's NASCAR. There are team orders. You probably can't even find a tenderloin sandwhich at the track, but mass quantities of wine and cheese will be consumed. "Rubbin" is not "racin", it is downright suicidal. There are often local cautions instead of full track cautions so the pace car stays behind the wall most of the time. You do not lose a lap when you pit because circuits are 2 or 3 miles in length. Gas is pumped in (imagine that), there is one lug nut per tire and a gaggle of attendents are allowed over the wall allowing pit stops to take place in 4, 5, maybe 6 seconds, and there are no mysterious TV time outs that bring out the caution.
Don't get me wrong, I love NASCAR (Go Sterling) and prefer watching and following it to F1, but still, I believe F1 is the purest form of racing in motorsport. So, if I haven't already bored you to tears, check the following article from F1.com out. Wouldn't it be great if we could see more NASCAR drivers doing this at the local karting track?
Formula One drivers Rubens Barrichello and Felipe Massa struggled during Sunday’s Granja Viana endurance karting event. It was the tenth running of the annual 500-mile race, which takes place in Sao Paolo and regularly attracts Brazil’s biggest motorsport names.
Barrichello, despite leading the winning team on six previous occasions, finished in second, two laps down on the victorious squad led by 15-year old Otavio Bonder and his team mates Antonio Ventre, Jose Eduardo Ventre, Bruno Pacetti and Lucas Rodrigues. Barrichello’s team, which also featured CART driver Tony Kanaan, narrowly bettered that of former Jaguar and Prost driver Luciano Burti, which eventually finished in third after the team’s kart stopped with 10 laps to go.
“We’ve got to celebrate - our kart was not as quick as the ones driven by the drivers that arrived in front of us and even some that we happen to get passed,” explained Barrichello. “We faced problems with a poor engine all the time.”
Massa finished down in 69th despite clinching pole position during Saturday’s qualifying session. Although the Ferrari driver lost the lead at the start, he was enjoying a strong drive in second for the first hour before colliding with another runner. The accident left Massa’s kart with a broken axle and after 30 laps spent fruitlessly in the pits he rejoined the race. The Brazilian was replaced in turn by team mates Joao Paulo Bertuccelli, Ruben Carrapatoso and Rafael Derani, but a third engine failure saw the team retire.
“There was nothing I could do,” said Massa, who won the inaugural Granja Viana back in 1997. “When I realized, the guy just a few metres ahead. It was a shame, because our pace was quite good and we were capable of finishing in the top three positions.”
Nelson Piquet Jr, meanwhile, competed with two teams, which finished ninth and 15th respectively, whilst fellow Renault tester Ricardo Zonta crossed the line in 32nd with his team.
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