Massa storms to victory ahead of Hamilton

Felipe Massa stormed to a lights-to-flag victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to get his championship back on track. Kimi Raikkonen made it onto the podium again in third while Nick Heidfeld edged Fernando Alonso for fourth place.

With the war of words mounting overnight between Massa and Hamilton, the pair lined up on the front row of the grid, for their latest showdown. Massa, determined not to be beaten off the line by Hamilton again and made a clean start to lead the field into turn one as Alonso zoomed up the inside of Raikkonen. The Finn took to the outside and as Alonso got boxed in behind his team mate, retook third place from the reigning champion, only for Alonso to cut back past the Finn in turn four.

As Massa led Hamilton, Alonso and Raikkonen into the fifth corner, Jenson Button and Scott Speed got too close for comfort and following a collision, were both out of the race. The safety car was deployed to allow marshals to clean up the debris.

After three laps behind the safety car, the race resumed - Hamilton diced to the diced to the inside but Massa had too much straight-line speed and the young Briton could do nothing about him. Meanwhile Alonso was right on his tail, trying to fend off the advances of Kimi Raikkonen. The pace was frantic at the front - just two seconds separated the leading four drivers on lap five.

Hamilton kept Massa honest and by lap 12 he was still only 0.8s adrift while Alonso and Raikkonen had dropped five seconds away and were in danger of falling into the grasp of BMW's Nick Heidfeld in fifth.

Hamilton was the first frontrunner to blink on lap 19 when he made his first scheduled pit stop. Massa stayed out two more laps and then dived into the pits, releasing Alonso and Raikkonen into the lead. The reigning champion pitted on lap 22, with Raikkonen and Heidfeld staying out until lap 23.

After the first round of pit stops, Massa's lead over Hamilton had grown to 4.6s with Raikkonen a further 5.9s down and Alonso right on his tail while Heidfeld resumed in fifth.

McLaren struggled for pace in the second phase of the race. Hamilton gradually dropped back from Massa and Alonso struggled to keep pace with Raikkonen. The Spaniard fell back into the grasp of Nick Heidfeld and the German showed he could genuinely overtake, muscling his way past the McLaren to take fourth place.

Raikkonen closed in on Hamilton while Massa continued to stretch his lead. The Brazilian was the first frontrunner to make his second fuel stop seventeen laps from the finish, followed in on the next lap by Raikkonen. Alonso dived in three laps later, but could not get past Heidfeld.

In the final phase McLaren seemed much more comfortable on the harder tyres and Hamilton scythed away at Massa's lead while Alonso closed right in on Heidfeld. Despite his best efforts, it was too late for Hamilton to do anything about Massa and Alonso could not do anything to get past Heidfeld.

Massa ended up cruising to his third ever F1 victory and his first of the season ahead of Lewis Hamilton who becomes the first ever driver to finish on the podium in all three of his debut races. Kimi Raikkonen kept his cool in the desert heat to take third place ahead of a strong drive from BMW's Nick Heidfeld. Fernando Alonso struggled to fifth ahead of Kubica, taking his first points of the season in sixth. Trulli and Fisichella completed the top eight.

Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton are now all tied on 22 points in the lead of the championship with Alonso the official leader on count-back. Felipe Massa has joined the fight now taking his tally up to 17 points.

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