Massa storms to Bahrain GP win

The Brazilian stayed clear of the closing Lewis Hamilton in the final laps, while Kimi Raikkonen claimed the final podium place and Nick Heidfeld beat former pre-race championship leader Fernando Alonso to fourth.

The result means there's a three-way tie for the championship lead, with Raikkonen, Alonso and Hamilton tied on 22 points. Race winner Massa is five points behind.

McLaren driver Hamilton also made history on Sunday, becoming the first F1 driver to score three podiums in his first three races.

The Briton was unable to get on terms with Massa at the start this time, and instead nearly lost a place to Raikkonen at the first corner.

But Raikkonen lost momentum challenging the McLaren and was passed on the outside at Turn 4 by Alonso.

Massa and Hamilton then pulled away from the field together, while Alonso appeared to be holding up both Raikkonen and Heidfeld in the first stint - this trio dropping 10 seconds behind the leaders.

McLaren chose to put their drivers on long middle stints to maximise their time on soft tyres, but the tactic did not pay off.

Hamilton quickly dropped away from Massa, while Alonso lost out to Raikkonen in the pitstops, then came under heavy pressure from Heidfeld before the BMW drove around the outside of the McLaren at Turn 4 to take fourth on lap 31.

Raikkonen closed to within a second of Hamilton before the final stops, but three extra laps on low fuel helped the McLaren to stay in front.

Hamilton then gained substantially on Massa in the last laps of the race, getting the Ferrari driver's lead down to two seconds as they took the flag, but never getting close enough to try and pass.

Alonso could not make as much ground, and had to follow Heidfeld home for a low-key fifth place.

Robert Kubica could not match teammate Heidfeld's pace and spent the entire race in a very solitary sixth place.

The Red Bulls should have claimed the final two points positions - David Coulthard having made superb progress from the back of the grid on an aggressive strategy.

A series of determined early passing moves put him on course for seventh, until a lap 36 driveshaft failure.

Teammate Mark Webber then inherited the place, only to also pull off five laps later.

Jarno Trulli therefore moved up to seventh, having overtaken both Renaults during the race. Giancarlo Fisichella came back at the Toyota in the closing stages, but despite getting alongside his compatriot on the penultimate lap he was unable to take the place.

Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg completed the top ten, finishing nose to tail.

Both Super Aguris retired, but only after a long first stint had allowed Anthony Davidson to run as high as sixth.

They comfortably outpaced the sole works Honda of Rubens Barrichello, whose teammate Jenson Button retired on the first lap after an incident with Scott Speed and Adrian Sutil that prompted a brief safety car.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Bahrain Grand Prix
Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain;
57 laps; 308.238km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1h33:27.515
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +     2.360
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  +    10.839
 4.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +    13.831
 5.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    14.426
 6.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +    45.529
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +  1:21.371
 8.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  +  1:21.701
 9.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:29.411
10.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:29.916
11.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    1 lap
12.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +    1 lap
13.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +    1 lap
14.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +    2 laps
15.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +    4 laps
16.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    6 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:34.067

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)    42
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)    37
Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)    35
Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    27
Button        Honda                (B)     1
Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)     1


World Championship standings, round 3:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso        22        1.  McLaren-Mercedes      44
 2.  Raikkonen     22        2.  Ferrari               39
 3.  Hamilton      22        3.  BMW Sauber            18
 4.  Massa         17        4.  Renault                9
 5.  Heidfeld      15        5.  Toyota                 5
 6.  Fisichella     8        6.  Williams-Toyota        2
 7.  Trulli         4       
 8.  Kubica         3       
 9.  Rosberg        2       
10.  R.Schumacher   1       
11.  Kovalainen     1       
       
All timing unofficial