Two Thirds

"Part Monaco, part Montreal" was the pat description for the new street circuit at Valencia, host for Sunday's European Grand Prix. While the Hermann Tilke-designed track did provide two key ingredients for a popular and successful grand prix - an exotic location and a challenging layout where overtaking is possible - it was missing a vital third ingredient: close and exciting racing.

Monaco has its traditional glamour and Montreal has high drama via the likelihood of accidents and safety car periods disrupting even the most conservative strategies. Valencia promised the latter but, with all the drivers adopting a sensibly wary approach to the high-risk circuit, the race became a processional and low-key affair.

It didn't help that the passion of the local crowd was extinguished less than two minutes after the start, when Fernando Alonso's wingless Renault limped into retirement courtesy of a shunt from Kazuki Nakajima's Williams.

Nor is a close and exciting race likely when Ferrari's Felipe Massa is in the sort of irresistible form that he showed on Sunday. Especially on an unfamiliar layout with such heavy braking zones, Massa could have been forgiven for the occasional braking lock-up or wide exit. Yet the Ferrari was on rails all race long, as the Brazilian put on a Prost-like display of effortlessly precise driving.

Even with such dominance, Massa's Ferrari team almost ruined his afternoon by releasing him from the pit box and very nearly into the path of Adrian Sutil's Force India following his second stop.

While the Ferrari team pleaded that Sutil suffered no disadvantage from the incident, Massa was still lucky to escape without a drive-through penalty or grid demotion at the next race - especially considering the precedent set for the same type of incident in the earlier GP2 race.

The inability of the stewards to reach a decision during the race, deferring their judgment until after the chequered flag and podium celebrations instead, also raised eyebrows. There are already claims that rulings in Formula One are too inconsistent and arbitrary, and this incident will only add to the grumblings.

However, a penalty against Massa would have been unjust, on a day when he outclassed the field so comprehensively. For only the second time this season, we saw a clean sweep of pole position, fastest lap and the victory, and Massa richly deserved all three.

The only other driver to achieve that record in 2008 was Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, at his last grand prix victory back in Spain. It was only four months ago, but it must seem like light years for the reigning champion.

Despite earnest declarations that he would sort out his qualifying problems and get back into winning form, Raikkonen looked no better at Valencia than he had in Germany and Hungary, prior to the summer break.

That was in part due to a mystifying tactical decision during qualifying, to run with three laps more fuel than Massa. Given the probability of a safety car at some point during the first stint, it wasn't a bad gamble by Raikkonen. The more fuel a car is carrying, the bigger the driver's window of opportunity during the safety car period.

Still, when a driver has committed to ending a run of poor qualifying performances and getting back onto the front row of the grid, taking extra fuel into final qualifying shouldn't be top of his priorities.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari © LAT

Even where Raikkonen hasn't been able to put the car on pole position, he has had the race pace to compensate. In both Canada and Great Britain, he was reeling in race leader Lewis Hamilton by the end of the first stint. He also set fastest race lap in seven of the eight grands prix prior to Europe.

On Sunday, he didn't have even that consolation. Discounting pit in- and out-laps, Raikkonen was slower than Massa on all but one of the race laps that both completed. That must surely be a first in Kimi Raikkonen's career.

It was partly due to traffic, especially the phase when Raikkonen had to sit patiently behind Massa following the race leader's early pit-stop. But even when he was in clear air and hunting down Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren ahead, Raikkonen was simply not on Massa's pace all afternoon long.

He remains outwardly calm in his resolve to overcome his problems, and the Ferrari team have publicly rallied behind their reigning champion. But his botched pitstop, in which he ran over a Ferrari mechanic in his haste to leapfrog Kovalainen (who had pitted at the same time), spoke volumes about Raikkonen's increasing desperation to halt the slide.

Ferrari's "automated" pitstop light system (replacing the traditional lollipop) is a convenient scapegoat. However, there is nothing automated about the system. It still relies on humans flicking switches, based on their own judgment. It was this failing, rather than any phantom "computer error", that caused both Ferrari pitstop mishaps.

Massa could at least shrug his shoulders and plead innocence. A team engineer activated the green light and Massa merely obeyed the signal. Raikkonen, by his own admission, was at fault for leaving the pit when the light was still red.

Ultimately, Raikkonen's rash decision cost him nothing, as his Ferrari engine was doomed to expire anyway. But that momentary loss of nerve was not a good omen, particularly with the worst of the championship pressure still to come.

Two-thirds of the way through the 2008 campaign, only two-thirds of the championship protagonists are pitching up and racing like potential champions. Massa looks flawless and Lewis Hamilton was subdued but mature in settling for a second place to limit the damage. Raikkonen is the missing one-third of the championship equation.

A comparison of the same phase during the 2007 season illustrates just how the reigning champion's fortunes have slumped. >From races six - 12 of the 2007 season, the points were fairly equitably divided among the four main championship players: Hamilton 46 points, Raikkonen 45, Fernando Alonso 41, Massa 36.

This season, the same phase has resulted in Hamilton accumulating 42 points, Massa 36 again, and Raikkonen trailing on 22. Without Massa's engine failure in Hungary, the disparity would look even worse for the Finn.

Kimi Raikkonen en route to 2nd place in the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji © XPB

The only bright point on Raikkonen's horizon is that he was superb down the finishing stretch in the 2007 championship. He will aim to emulate that in 2008.

Over the closing third of the 2007 season, Raikkonen never finished off the podium, racking up three wins and two third places to squeak the championship ahead of his two McLaren rivals. In his current situation, even those two thirds are probably more than he can afford.

In terms of launching a fightback, Raikkonen couldn't have picked a better venue than the next race at Spa-Francorchamps. He has won the last three Belgian Grands Prix in succession. Maintaining that streak would be a bare minimum towards successfully defending his title.

For Massa, Spa also presents a priceless opportunity. Going into the season, Massa was renowned as an occasional star performer, but only on a handful of his favoured circuits and only from pole position. Few believed he had the consistency and versatility to grind out a full campaign. Beating Raikkonen at Spa would round off Massa's championship credentials perfectly.