Felipe Massa rebounded from his shaky start to the 2008 season by beating teammate Kimi Raikkonen to victory in a Ferrari-dominated Bahrain Grand Prix.
Pole-winner Robert Kubica took another podium for BMW in third, ahead of teammate Nick Heidfeld - a result that puts the team into the lead of the constructors' championship for the first time in their short history.
But it was a disastrous day for pre-race championship leaders Lewis Hamilton and McLaren. The Briton lost seven places off the line with a very poor start, then hit former teammate Fernando Alonso and broke his front wing. He could only finish 13th, while teammate Heikki Kovalainen was a quiet fifth.
Massa instantly shot past front row partner Kubica and into the race lead at the start, with Kovalainen dodging around Hamilton to move up to third. The Finn out-muscled countryman Raikkonen through Turns 1 and 2, but was repassed by the world champion further ahead the opening lap.
Raikkonen then rapidly caught and passed Kubica for second, driving around the outside of the Pole at Turn 1 on lap three, while Kovalainen lost another place to Heidfeld when he ran wide on the same lap.
Hamilton's bad start had dropped him to 10th, and he was attempting to pass Alonso for ninth when he clipped the back of the Renault as they accelerated out of Turn 2. The McLaren briefly became airborne and lost its front wing, leaving Hamilton down in 18th and a minute behind the leaders after he pitted for repairs.
This tangle was one of several early incidents, with Jenson Button (Honda), Adrian Sutil (Force India) and David Coulthard (Red Bull) all having to pit with damage after a chaotic opening lap. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel sustained broken suspension, while Renault driver Nelson Piquet spun down the order on the second lap. He recovered several positions before retiring with gearbox failure.
At the front, Massa edged away from Raikkonen and established a five-second early lead. Kubica kept Raikkonen under pressure until pitting on lap 17, three laps earlier than Raikkonen, who was the first Ferrari driver to stop.
Moving your attention to the other drivers, Rubens Barichello, Mark Webber, and Giancarlo Fisichella so far are the standouts in this category with my edge going to Giancarlo Fisichella. I give him the edge over Rubens Barichello just barely. Fisichella is silencing his critics just as much as Massa has to. After crashing out in Australia, he has rebounded and been very consistent; has had 2 strong drives taking his Force to 12th position in the last 2 races. I might just give him a Ferrari to drive.
Honda too have improved, no doubt and so has Rubens. By the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix, he was challenging Alonso for 10th place. It may have been a damaged Renault Alonso was driving, but nevertheless Honda has improved so far. I look ahead to Barcelona for the next aero change.Mark Webber has been consistent at 7th place since the last 2 races. He dropped one grid position in Malaysia starting 6th and finishing 7th. In Bahrain his qualifying was much worse starting 11th on the gird, but pulling again up to 7th. More importantly he has scored points in these last to races. The standings so far are
Classified:
1. Massa Ferrari 1h31:06.970
2. Raikkonen Ferrari + 3.339
3. Kubica BMW Sauber + 4.998
4. Heidfeld BMW Sauber + 8.409
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes + 26.789
6. Trulli Toyota + 41.314
7. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 45.473
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota + 55.889
9. Glock Toyota + 1:09.500
10. Alonso Renault + 1:17.181
11. Barrichello Honda + 1:17.862
12. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari + 1 lap
13. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 1 lap
14. Nakajima Williams-Toyota + 1 lap
15. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap
16. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda + 1 lap
17. SatoSuper Aguri-Honda + 1 lap
18. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault + 1 lap
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari + 2 laps
Fastest lap:
Kovalainen, 1:33.193
Not classified/retirements:
Piquet Renault 42 laps
Button Honda 20 laps
Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1 lap
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