The Hindu : Sport : Felipe Massa sizzles in Spanish Grand Prix

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Monday, May 14, 2007
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Felipe Massa sizzles in Spanish Grand Prix

ON FIRE: Felipe Massa's Ferrari was in flames at the first pit stop but that didn't stop him from winning the Spanish GP.

BARCELONA: Ferrari's Felipe Massa won the Spanish Grand Prix, while the 22-year-old British rookie Lewis Hamilton seized the championship lead from McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso in only his fourth Formula One race here on Sunday.

Double world champion Alonso finished third, eclipsed before his 140,000 strong home crowd by Brazilian Massa and the extraordinary Hamilton.

Hamilton, already the first driver in Formula One history to finish his first three races on the podium, has yet to win but now leads the standings with 30 points to Alonso's 28 and Massa's 27.

In finishing second, for the third race in a row after a debut third place in March, Hamilton replaced the team's late founder Bruce McLaren in the record books as the sport's youngest championship leader.

``We're leading the championship, I couldn't be happier,'' Hamilton said. ``I've been working so many years for this, me and my family, and to be in this position is a dream. I'm enjoying it, and I need to keep enjoying it.''

He praised the team and predicted ``ups and downs'' in the races ahead. ``It is all about scoring points and podiums and staying there with the consistency of the team.''

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, level on 22 points with Alonso and Hamilton before the start, retired after 10 laps with a mechanical problem.

Second straight win

Massa, celebrating his second win in a row and fourth of his career on a bright afternoon at the Circuit de Catalunya, started in pole position and only ceded the lead at the pit stops.

The Brazilian, pilloried by the Italian media after a glaring mistake in the Malaysian Grand Prix in April, took the chequered flag 6.7 seconds clear of Hamilton.

The Briton made a great start from fourth place, slipping past Raikkonen into the first corner and snapping up second place when Massa closed the door on Alonso and forced the Spaniard to run wide over the gravel.

That was the only time Massa was seriously challenged, his only scare coming at the first pit stop when spilt fuel around the fuel cap ignited in a sheet of flame as the 26-year-old pulled away.

Raikkonen out

Alonso was in fourth spot at the end of lap one but moved back to third when Raikkonen slowed with a mechanical problem, returning to the pits at a crawl.

Poland's Robert Kubica finished fourth for BMW Sauber after teammate Nick Heidfeld, who led for a lap, retired with a mechanical problem after a troubled second pit stop.

Briton David Coulthard, at 36 the oldest driver in the race, claimed Red Bull's first points of the season in fifth place at the circuit where he made his Formula One debut in 1994.

Germany's Nico Rosberg was sixth for Williams with Finland's Heikki Kovalainen seventh for Renault.

Japan's Takuma Sato gave Super Aguri its first point in Formula One with eighth place.

The race was shortened by one lap after the first start was aborted after Italian Jarno Trulli's Toyota stalled in sixth place on the grid. Trulli was pushed away and began the race from the pit lane.

His teammate Ralf Schumacher also had a miserable afternoon, rammed from behind by the Williams of Austrian Alexander Wurz when he braked into the new chicane on the opening lap.

Honda once again failed to score its first point of the season, with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and Briton Jenson Button coming together on the 23rd lap as the latter was leaving the pit lane.

Alonso angry

After the race, Alonso accused Massa of dangerous driving. The Spaniard blamed Massa for an incident in the opening corner of the race.

``I thought I was very much in front of him in the first corner — and he didn't think so — and we touched each other. It was dangerous and we were lucky to finish,'' said a sad-looking Alonso.

``We were very lucky because 99 per cent of the time in incidents like that you would finish the race in the first corner. I had braked late and I thought I was in front. He just did not think so.''

Massa, whose second consecutive win re-ignited hopes of mounting a serious challenge for the drivers' title, said: ``It was very tight. I went inside and we went for it.

``It was very close for both of us in the first corner and it was important. I didn't want to lose it like (I did) in Malaysia. I was on the inside and I wanted to stay there.

``We touched, it was not too strong. He was trying to push me inside. It was a small contact, but fortunately nothing happened.''

Alonso said: ``If you are fourth and running with less fuel than your opponents, then the race can become very complicated. It was very tight. I had put myself in the slipstream and I thought I was a little in front."

The wheel-banging incident lit up an otherwise dull race and highlighted the tension and the tight battle in prospect between the two leading teams, Ferrari and McLaren.

McLaren leads the Constructors' championship with 58 points, followed by Ferrari with 49.

The next race is the Monaco GP in Monte Carlo on May 27. — Agencies

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