Monday, May 14, 2007

Massa cruises to Spanish GP win


Felipe Massa took his second successive victory with a dominant performance in the Spanish Grand Prix after his third consecutive pole position.

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.

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.

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.

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