Felipe Massa Wins 2008 Bahrain Grand PrixIt was Felipe Massa’s day to silence his critics by winning the 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix over teammate Kimi Raikkonen. This was a day that belonged to Ferrari from the get go and they never looked back.

McLaren wanted to bounce back after Malaysia, but it was a disaster. Lewis Hamilton couldn’t get his McLaren off the line and felt the wind of 7 drivers pass him by. Not a good way to come back. It didn’t end there when he ran into the back of Fernando Alonso out of turn 12, braking his front wing and wounding his car for the rest of the race. After a pit to replace the wing, he sat in a dismal 18th place a full minute behind Massa. 13 is all he got in the end. Heikki Kovalainen drove a consistent race finishing where he started, but had no pace to match either Ferrari or BMW-Sauber.

The collision between Hamilton and Alonso initially looked like Alonso was ‘brake testing’ Hamilton when Hamilton crashed into the back of him. After the race, Hamilton sort of took responsibility when asked what happened:

“I have no idea. I was behind him, I went to move to the right, he went to the right and I ended up in the back of him somehow. It´s racing.”

Pole sitter Robert Kubica of BMW-Sauber was beaten off the line by Massa and by the end of lap 3 Raikkonen took him for 2nd. That’s the way the top 3 ended up at the end, but interestingly enough, Ferrari were only able to shake Kubica during the middle pit stint and Kubica closed the gap once again.
Now for the first time, BMW Sauber leads the Constructors Championship by a point over Ferrari.

Toyota was led of course by Jarno Trulli who drove another great race with a much improving car. During the middle of the race I thought he had a chance at taking Heikki Kovalainen but it wasn’t to be. He did manage to pull away from Red Bull’s Mark Webber and finished 6th.

Finally Force India had both cars finish a race today with Giancarlo Fisichella logging 12th and Adrian Sutil 19th. After a lap 1 incident, Sutil was already a lap down and with that car had no chance of picking up any ground. They both finished respectably. Good going.

Good friends David Coulthard and Jenson Button are going to have a few beers to iron out what happened on the track. Button edged up on the inside of Coulthard when Coulthard closed the door on him sending Button out of the race and wounding the Red Bull.

It’s only race 3, but what’s happening up front? Ferrari are showing great form now, BMW-Sauber are in their shadow, and McLaren are drifting back in the field.

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