Massa cruises to Spanish GP win

Local hero Fernando Alonso could only finish third after tangling with Massa at the start of the race, while Lewis Hamilton now takes the championship lead thanks to his third consecutive second place finish.

The British rookie is yet to win a race this season, but thanks to Formula One's scoring system, he is two points ahead of teammate Alonso after four races.

Massa, winner of two races this year, is three points behind Hamilton, with Kimi Raikkonen, who retired from today's race, eight points adrift.

Alonso tried to go around the outside of Massa at the first corner, but banged wheels with the Ferrari as he did so, sending the McLaren across the gravel and allowing Hamilton and Raikkonen to sweep past.

Massa proceeded to command the rest of the race, although he had a scare at his first pitstop when a small fuel spillage caused a dramatic fire on the side of his Ferrari as he pulled away.

But the damage was only superficial, and the Brazilian was able to resume his dominant progress towards another win, extending his advantage to nearly 20 seconds before backing off in the closing stages.

A longer first stint made little difference for Hamilton, who could not challenge Massa but was never threatened for second.

Alonso made a spirited early attempt to pass Raikkonen on the outside at Turn 10, and then benefited when the Finn suffered a rare Ferrari failure and parked with electrical problems after just 10 laps.

But Alonso did not have the pace to catch the leaders, instead falling as much as half a minute behind after struggling with the harder tyres during a long middle stint.

Robert Kubica took fourth after his best race of the year, having got within two seconds of Alonso in the middle of the race.

The Pole's BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld briefly led thanks to a long first stint, but dropped out of contention with a disastrous pitstop, in which he was waved out before his right front wheel was properly attached.

Heidfeld nursed the car back around to the pits so that the problem could be rectified, and then made progress through the backmarkers before retiring.

David Coulthard held on to fifth despite a late gearbox problem that saw Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen charge onto the hobbled Red Bull's tail.

Both Renaults had been affected by a fuel rig glitch that forced them to make three stops. This left Giancarlo Fisichella only ninth behind Takuma Sato, as Super Aguri celebrated their first ever points finish.

Fisichella had lost ground by running wide on the first lap, leading to an incident in the pack behind in which Alex Wurz ran into the back of Ralf Schumacher. The Toyota rejoined after repairs but later retired, as had teammate Jarno Trulli, who had stalled on the grid and had to start last.

Rubens Barrichello took 10th for Honda, dropping back from eighth during the final pit stops. He survived a brush with teammate Jenson Button, who lost his front wing after tagging Barrichello's car as he rejoined following his first pit visit.

PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS

The Spanish Grand Prix
Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;
66 laps; 307.104km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1h31:36.230
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +     6.790
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    17.456
 4.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +    31.615
 5.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +    58.331
 6.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    59.538
 7.  Kovalainen    Renault              (B)  +  1:02.128
 8.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
 9.  Fisichella    Renault              (B)  +     1 lap
10.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Button        Honda                (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +    2 laps
14.  Albers        Spyker-Ferrari       (B)  +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:22.680

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)    48
R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)    46
Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    21
Speed         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    11
Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)    11
Trulli        Toyota               (B)    10
Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)    9
Wurz          Williams-Toyota      (B)    4


World Championship standings, round 4:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      30        1.  McLaren-Mercedes      58
 2.  Alonso        28        2.  Ferrari               49
 3.  Massa         27        3.  BMW Sauber            23
 4.  Raikkonen     22        4.  Renault               11
 5.  Heidfeld      15        5.  Williams-Toyota        5
 6.  Fisichella     8        6.  Toyota                 5
 7.  Kubica         8        7.  Red Bull-Renault       4
 8.  Rosberg        5        8.  Super Aguri-Honda      1
 9.  Trulli         4       
10.  Coulthard      4       
11.  Kovalainen     3       
12.  R.Schumacher   1       
13.  Sato           1       
       
All timing unofficial