Felipe Massa won the Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari and lifted himself into the midst of a close four-way scrap for this year's drivers' world championship.
BARCELONA: Brazilian Felipe Massa won Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix for Ferrari and lifted himself into the midst of a close four-way scrap for this year's drivers' world championship.
Massa, 25, driving with great speed and aplomb, delivered a majestic and near-flawless performance for the famous Italian team to secure his second victory in succession and the fourth of his career.
But as the man from Sao Paulo celebrated his dominant triumph, it was Englishman Lewis Hamilton of McLaren-Mercedes who had most to enjoy.
Hamilton reeled off his fourth consecutive podium position since his debut in Australia, finishing 6.7 seconds behind Massa and 10.6 seconds ahead of his team-mate and local hero double champion Fernando Alonso of Spain.
This was a remarkable achievement for anyone, but particularly notable for a rookie who is the first driver of Afro-Caribbean descent to race in Formula One.
Hamilton now leads the drivers title race with 30 points, ahead of Alonso on 28, Massa on 27 and Finn Kimi Raikkonen, who retired on the 10th lap with a mechanical problem, on 22.
In Sunday's unmemorable race, mostly a battle of attrition that saw several retirements, Poland's Robert Kubica finished fourth in his BMW Sauber, Briton David Coulthard fifth for Red Bull and German Nico Rosberg sixth for BMW.
The Renault of Finn Keikki Kovalainen finished seventh ahead of eighth-placed Japanese Takuma Sato for the rapidly-improving Super Aguri team.
It was a first points-scoring finish of the season for both Coulthard and Sato. On another perfect Spring day in Catalunya, the air temperature was 30 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 48 when the race began. An aborted start, caused when Italian Jarno Trulli stalled his Toyota on the grid, caused a re-start to be arranged and another formation lap.
Massa made an excellent start, sweeping away from his third successive pole position to take the lead into the first corner, closely followed by Alonso.
The double champion, whose fans had brought plenty of Asturian colour to the Circuit de Catalunya, made a robust challenge to force his way past the Brazilian as they rounded turn one, but Massa defended equally.
Massa was out in front ahead of Hamilton after 26 laps with an advantage of more than ten seconds. By then, Raikkonen, also, had been forced to retire in his Ferrari, his red car slowly limping back to the Italian team garage.
It was a measure of his disappointment that his disappearance was barely noticed in the fury of the fight for the lead.
Massa once again built up a solid lead ahead of Hamilton, without shaking him off, and the Brazilian pitted again, for a second time, after 42 laps.
Again, Hamilton took over the lead until he came in four laps later. Once the order resettled, when Alonso pitted after 48 laps from running second, it was Massa back in front with a lead of 6.4 seconds ahead of the Spaniard and then Hamilton. Alonso came out and took third place.
This left Massa in front and in dominant form with 15 laps remaining ahead of Hamilton by 11.5 seconds and a further 15 seconds advantage over Alonso, who was in turn trailed by Kubica and a resurgent Coulthard as the final laps approached.
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