F1 : Massa wins in Valencia

Felipe Massa kisses the champion trophy of European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain

Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton each had their own reasons to feel relieved on Sunday after finishing first and second in a processional European Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain.


Massa's win on the streets of Valencia wiped away the Ferrari driver's disappointment at retiring from the Hungarian Grand Prix three weeks earlier with a blown engine while leading with three laps remaining.

The Brazilian, who drove from pole position to chequered flag in masterful fashion, climbed the podium with the race outcome still uncertain pending a stewards' enquiry.

In the end he escaped with a EUR10,000 fine, with stewards deciding that while his release from his second pitstop had been unsafe there was no sporting advantage gained.

McLaren's Hamilton, now six points clear of Massa in the drivers' standings, was happy to have limited the damage after 'flu symptoms and a painful neck had made the 23-year-old Briton's participation doubtful.

The win catapulted Massa back to second place in the championship, ahead of team mate and world champion Kimi Raikkonen who retired in the closing stages with another spectacular engine failure.

Hamilton now leads with 70 points to Massa's 64 and Raikkonen's 57.

"I am so glad, and so happy, to be able to be here like this after such a bad result in Hungary," said Massa, who finished 5.6 seconds ahead of Hamilton for his fourth win of the season.

"The car was great, especially in the second stint, and the team were great, too. To take pole position, to win the race and to have the fastest lap - you cannot ask for more after such a result in Budapest."

Ferrari stayed top of the constructors' standings with 121 points to McLaren's 113 and BMW Sauber's 96.

Hamilton suffers

Hamilton, who has also won four races, was relieved to have put a "miserable weekend" behind him.

"I have had flu symptoms and a fever nearly every day. I had low energy and I had problems with spasms in my neck," he said. "This led to me almost not racing this weekend.

"Pedro (de la Rosa, the team's test and reserve driver) was on standby. But I managed to get through it even though it was tough."

Poland's Robert Kubica took third place for BMW Sauber despite a steering imbalance caused by a plastic bag blowing across the track and becoming wedged underneath his car during the early laps.

"I felt like I couldn't drive it, I lost the steering a lot for two corners before it came back and I lost some confidence in the car," he said. "So I am glad to be third, it is a good result for the team."

Raikkonen, without a win since the Spanish Grand Prix in April, bungled his second pitstop and injured a mechanic when he set off before the fuel nozzle had been removed. That incident was also the subject of a stewards' inquiry.

The Ferrari pitstops aside, the first grand prix staged in Valencia proved a straightforward contest with the top three finishing as they started.

Raikkonen's retirement, with black smoke billowing across the pit straight 12 laps from the finish, again highlighted the fragility of Ferrari's reliability with six races remaining.

"It is an issue for us because we have had some problems in the first race, in the last one and in this one," said Massa.

McLaren had little to worry in that respect, with Hungarian GP winner Heikki Kovalainen finishing fourth ahead of Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Germany's Sebastian Vettel for Toro Rosso.

Germany's Timo Glock was seventh for Toyota while compatriot Nico Rosberg took the final point for Williams.

Fernando Alonso suffered the biggest disappointment, with Spain's double world champion forced to retire after the opening lap when his Renault was hit by Kazuki Nakajima's Williams.

"I wanted to carry on for the fans, but the damage was too bad," he said.



2008 F1 TELEFONICA GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE GP result :

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Pts
1	2	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:35:32.339	10
2	22	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	+5.6 secs	8
3	4	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	+37.3 secs	6
4	23	Heikki Kovalainen	McLaren-Mercedes	+39.7 secs	5
5	11	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	+50.6 secs	4
6	15	Sebastian Vettel	STR-Ferrari	+52.6 secs	3
7	12	Timo Glock	Toyota	+67.9 secs	2
8	7	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	+71.4 secs	1
9	3	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	+82.1 secs
10	14	Sebastien Bourdais	STR-Ferrari	+89.7 secs
11	6	Nelsinho Piquet	Renault	+92.7 secs
12	10	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	+1 Lap
13	16	Jenson Button	Honda	+1 Lap
14	21	Giancarlo Fisichella	Force India-Ferrari	+1 Lap
15	8	Kazuki Nakajima	Williams-Toyota	+1 Lap
16	17	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	+1 Lap
17	9	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	+1 Lap
Ret	1	Kimi Raikonen	Ferrari	+12 Laps
Ret	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Ferrari	Accident
Ret	5	Fernando Alonso	Renault	Accident damage

Driver Championship Standings :

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Points
1	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	70
2	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	64
3	Kimi Raikonen	Finnish	Ferrari	57
4	Robert Kubica	Polish	BMW Sauber	55
5	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	McLaren-Mercedes	43
6	Nick Heidfeld	German	BMW Sauber	41
7	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Toyota	26
8	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Renault	18
9	Mark Webber	Australian	Red Bull-Renault	18
10	Timo Glock	German	Toyota	15
11	Nelsinho Piquet	Brazilian	Renault	13
12	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Honda	11
13	Nico Rosberg	German	Williams-Toyota	9
14	Sebastian Vettel	German	STR-Ferrari	9
15	Kazuki Nakajima	Japanese	Williams-Toyota	8
16	David Coulthard	British	Red Bull-Renault	6
17	Jenson Button	British	Honda	3
18	Sebastien Bourdais	French	STR-Ferrari	2
19	Giancarlo Fisichella	Italian	Force India-Ferrari	0
20	Takuma Sato	Japanese	Super Aguri-Honda	0
21	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Ferrari	0
22	Anthony Davidson	British	Super Aguri-Honda	0

Constructor Championship Standings :

Pos	Team	Points
1	Ferrari	121
2	McLaren-Mercedes	113
3	BMW Sauber	96
4	Toyota	41
5	Renault	31
6	Red Bull-Renault	24
7	Williams-Toyota	17
8	Honda	14
9	STR-Ferrari	11
10	Force India-Ferrari	0
11	Super Aguri-Honda	0

[Source : SuperWheels .. Image courtesy of PlanetF1]