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."
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.
My man Reubens Barrichello had a big day during testing in Jerez Spain on Friday of last week. It looks like the Honda may be the fastest team on wet tires. And since it will likely rain during at least one F1 race this season, I am going to look forward to the wet stuff.
You see, once again, this is not your fathers NASCAR. F1 runs in the rain. They put on tires with grooves and go at it. Wow, novel thought, if it rains the fans still see a race. None of this postponing the race to Monday stuff. None of this gee should I stay till Monday and watch the race since I've got $200 bucks tied up in it anyway or should I go back to work so I don't get fired instead?
And in case you have missed the story, Lewis Hamilton was fastest on day two of testing when it wasn't raining. Hamilton will become F1's first black driver when the season opens next month.
p.s. If you spell it tyres and you say Honda are, you might be English.
Honda’s Rubens Barrichello topped the timesheets in Jerez on Friday, clocking a lap time of 1m 19.981s. Barrichello ended the session just under two-tenths faster than team mate James Rossiter.
Although heavy rain at the Spanish circuit during the morning caused a delay to the start of testing, Honda managed to complete their programme. Both Barrichello and Rossiter went out initially on Bridgestone’s extreme wets before switching to dry rubber as the weather cleared up.
Lewis Hamilton, who had set the fastest time on Thursday, ended the session in third for McLaren. Hamilton’s team mate, Pedro de la Rosa, was just over one-tenth slower. Both drivers continued to evaluate tyres, but while Hamilton focused on suspension work, De la Rosa spearheaded the team’s aerodynamic development programme.
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