Formula One news
Massa takes win, Hamilton takes championship lead
13 May 2007 / Results / PhotosFelipe Massa took a dominant win in the Spanish Grand Prix after a firm dealing with Fernando Alonso in the first corner while Lewis Hamilton finished the race in second. Alonso brought his McLaren home in third meaning that Hamilton takes the lead of the drivers' championship by two points.
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The start was aborted after Jarno Trulli stalled with a fuel pressure problem in sixth. While the Toyota was wheeled into the pit lane the field set off on a second formation lap. Massa makes a good start but Alonso goes round the outside only to be pushed wide onto the gravel in turn one by the Ferrari. Alonso scrambled back on track in fourth behind Massa, Hamilton and Raikkonen.
Alonso looked determined to make headway and tried to put one down the outside of Raikkonen in the final sector, but couldn't make it stick. Massa started to pull away from Hamilton and by lap three had a 2.5s advantage while Alonso stayed in touch with the second Ferrari.
Alonso caught a break on lap nine when Raikkonen's Ferrari slowed suddenly with an electrical failure. As the Finn limped back to the pit lane to retire, Alonso swooped into third and set about closing in on Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.
Massa pitted on lap 19 and almost got cooked as a splash of fuel leaked out and ignited on the exhaust covering the rear of the Ferrari with a lick of orange flames as he steamed off down the pit lane. Massa seemed to escape without serious damage as Alonso threw a gamble and took the harder compound tyres for the middle stint.
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Hamilton kept the lead until lap 22 when he dived into the pits releasing Heidfeld into the lead temporarily. Hamilton rejoined eight seconds behind behind Massa while Alonso was a further eight seconds adrift. Heidfeld pitted from the lead on lap 24 but his race was shot after he drove off before his right front wheel nut had been fully affixed.
By Lap 26 Massa had a 9.8s lead over Hamilton and Alonso had slipped a further 10.5s behind on the harder tyres. Ten laps later Massa had extended his lead to 16s over Hamilton with Alonso another 13s behind.
Massa made his second pit stop on lap 42 and rejoined in a train of traffic as Hamilton took the lead. The leading McLaren refuelled on lap 47 and Alonso filed in the next lap around for a final dash to the flag on soft tyres - Alonso's only hope that the softer tyre advantage would give him something to play with.
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In the final fifteen laps Alonso was consistently half a second a lap faster than the leading duo but it was too late to do anything about the gap. Giancarlo Fisichella had to make an unscheduled third pit stop after the fuel rig malfunctioned in the second pit stop. The Italian pitted on lap 59 but rejoined in ninth, just behind Super Aguri's Takuma Sato.
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Felipe Massa cruised home to his second win of the season, the fourth of his career. Lewis Hamilton kept a cool head to bring home a fourth podium from four races and another second place finish to take the lead of the drivers' championship. Fernando Alonso recovered to third.
Behind them Robert Kubica finally managed to shake off the bad luck that has plagued him so much this year to finish fourth for BMW. David Coulthard drove another incredibly competitive race to bring the Red Bull home in fifth place despite losing third gear in the final five laps. Coulthard did enough to keep Rosberg at bay and the Williams driver brought his car home in a strong sixth place.
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| Takuma Sato |
Kovalainen finished the weekend with two points for Renault after a much stronger weekend for the Finn while Takuma Sato scored Super Aguri's first ever championship point in eighth place.
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