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.
Kimi Raikkonen became the first Ferrari driver since Nigel Mansell in 1989 to win on his debut with the legendary Italian team on Sunday, barely putting a wheel wrong in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. His only problems were one minor off when he lost concentration on lap 46, and the lack of a radio throughout the race.
“The weekend has been very good, but today the race was not that easy,” he reported. “Maybe it looked like it but I didn’t have the radio as it stopped working before the start, so it was quite complicated. But we had our plan so I knew what had to do even if it was not the ideal situation.”
As the Finn sped into the distance, setting a string of fastest laps, the focus of attention fell on and his sensational debut for McLaren. Beaten off the line by Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber, the 22 year-old Briton simply drove round the outside of the Pole - and team mate Fernando Alonso who found himself trapped behind Nick Heidfeld in the other BMW - and held a confident second place ahead of the double world champion until the final pit stops. He even led the race for a couple of laps when Raikkonen made his first pit call.
After being blocked by Takuma Sato just prior to his second refuelling stop on lap 43, Hamilton lost second to Alonso when the Spaniard rejoined from his own stop on lap 45. Thereafter he dutifully followed his team leader home to finish an excellent third on his debut. He did a terrific job.
“It’s been fantastic, to lead in the race in my first Grand Prix,” a remarkably fresh-looking Hamilton said, “but it was extremely tough having the two-time world champion right behind you! The team have done a fantastic job here and back at the factory. “I got a pretty decent start but the BMWs were very quick off grid and Robert got past me. There was no way to stay on the inside so I thought I would dive back to the outside, and there I managed to out-brake nearly everyone. Obviously leading Fernando was then extremely intense, and for sure I made a couple of mistakes, but it’s been another new experience and I am ecstatic be here on the podium in my first race.”.
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