Massa dominates as Alonso falters
Enzo Ferrari | 14.05.2007 10:10
Felipe Massa denied the Barcelona crowd the result it was looking for by dominating the Spanish Grand Prix from lights to flag for his second consecutive victory - as Lewis Hamilton became Formula 1's youngest ever championship leader.
Massa never looked back after emerging on top from a first-corner skirmish with McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, which sent the home hero scampering across the gravel and down to fourth place - an incident he never recovered from.
And while the world champion endured a race-long struggle, his team-mate Hamilton upstaged him for the second race running by scoring another superb second place finish.
The result gives the 22-year-old rookie sole possession of the world championship lead after just four grands prix – another extraordinary milestone.
Polesitter Massa set the tone for his dominant display at the start by coming out on top after going wheel-to-wheel with Alonso going in to the first turn.
Both had got away well from the front row, but it was the world champion, no doubt spurred on by his passionate fans, who looked set to take the lead as he tried to brave it round the outside of the Ferrari through turn one.
However Massa held firm on the inside of the corner and the pair touched, forcing Alonso across the gravel and nearly into the path of his team-mate Hamilton and Raikkonen as he hurriedly rejoined the track.
Alonso's first corner move was a gamble that totally backfired, leaving him with a damaged car and a mountain to climb.
He tried to pass Raikkonen on the outside at turn 10 on the next lap, but was forced to settle into fourth place.
The first lap action had not all been at the front, as there was further chaos in the midfield.
As Giancarlo Fisichella, Anthony Davidson and Ralf Schumacher battled at turn 10, the following Alex Wurz was unsighted and smashed his Williams into the back of Schumacher’s Toyota – shattering his FW29’s front suspension and forcing him in to retirement.
The incident also forced the Toyota driver in for an unscheduled stop – a double blow for the Japanese squad after Jarno Trulli’s car had developed a fuel pump problem at the end of the formation lap.
At the front, Massa rapidly pulled away from Hamilton - who had outdragged Raikkonen at the start - with a succession of fastest laps.
He was six seconds clear by the end of lap 10.
But his team-mate Raikkonen – who had been hovering around a second behind Hamilton for the first nine laps – suddenly struck electrical problems and slowed.
The Finn limped back to the Ferrari garage and into his first retirement of the season – a huge blow to his world championship aspirations.
Raikkonen’s demise came amid a series of retirements in the opening 10 laps.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber (hydraulics) and Trulli had already pulled in to the garage before the right rear tyre on Scott Speed’s Toro Rosso spectacularly blew out on Catalunya’s main straight.
Meanwhile up front Massa had pulled out a 9.5s advantage by the time of his first pit stop on lap 19.
But for a few nervous moments all that effort looked as though it might have been in vain as an overfill on the fuel caused a flash fire on his Ferrari.
Luckily for the Brazilian, however, the conflagration did little damage and he was able to get back on the pace at the start of his second stint.
Massa was followed into the pits by the man who started alongside him on the front row, Alonso, but the Spaniard was now already out of the reckoning for a home victory.
But he then gambled for a second time by opting to take on the harder compound tyres for the second stint in a bid to claw back lost ground – a decision that would see him fall further back from the top two and in to the clutches of the chasing pack behind.
Within a few laps, the Spaniard was only a couple of seconds ahead of BMW’s Robert Kubica, enjoying by far his best weekend of the season, with Red Bull’s David Coulthard running close behind in fifth.
Lewis, as he hinted to ITV Sport following qualifying, did indeed have more fuel on board than both his team-mate and Massa, pulling in for service three laps later than they had.
This allowed him to close to within eight seconds of his Ferrari rival, but it proved to be a false dawn as despite the fire, Massa increased his lead further in the race’s second stint.
By the time of the final round of stops, Massa - who again was the first of the leading runners to pit - had a virtually insurmountable 19.3s advantage in his pocket.
Hamilton ran longer on the fuel, by four laps, and although he used the extra laps on the softer compound to claw back some ground, he still emerged from his second stop 11s adrift.
From here Massa managed the gap to the young Briton in the final 20 laps, eventually crossing the line 6.7s ahead of F1’s youngest-ever world championship leader.
Alonso’s lacklustre afternoon ended with a distant third, with Kubica picking up a solid five points for fourth after an impressive weekend.
He would have had a close race with his BMW team-mate Nick Heidfeld had the German not been waved out of his first pit stop before his right front wheel was properly attached.
Heidfeld had to tip-toe back around to the pits for the wheel to be secured, and later retired with gearbox failure.
Another driver to star was Coulthard who scored his best result since his podium in last year’s Monaco GP, although the Scot had a nervy final five laps after his RB3 lost a gear.
This allowed Nico Rosberg a shot at trying to steal fifth place for Williams, but he ran out of laps and had to settle for sixth.
Heikki Kovalainen underlined his growing confidence with seventh and at times was even the fastest driver on the track, but his race was marred by a fuel rig problem that forced both Renaults to make additional stops.
Probably the happiest team in the whole paddock was Super Aguri, who at the 22nd attempt finally scored its first F1 point thanks to Takuma Sato.
Sato took advantage of a late splash-and-dash fuel stop from Fisichella to take eighth place and no doubt sent his massed ranks of Japanese supporters wild back home.
But in contrast to the 160,000 Spaniards in the Barcelona grandstands, their own home hero had not quite delivered the result they had been looking for.
Spanish Grand Prix result (66 laps)
1. MASSA Ferrari 66 laps
2. HAMILTON McLaren +6.790s
3. ALONSO McLaren +17.456s
4. KUBICA BMW +31.615s
5. COULTHARD Red Bull +58.331s
6. ROSBERG Williams +59.538s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m02.128s
8. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
9. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
10. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
12. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
13. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
14. ALBERS Spyker +2 laps
R. HEIDFELD BMW +18 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +20 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +45 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +55 laps
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +55 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +56 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +57 laps
R. WURZ Williams +62 laps
Fastest lap: MASSA 1m22.680s (lap 14)
And while the world champion endured a race-long struggle, his team-mate Hamilton upstaged him for the second race running by scoring another superb second place finish.
The result gives the 22-year-old rookie sole possession of the world championship lead after just four grands prix – another extraordinary milestone.
Polesitter Massa set the tone for his dominant display at the start by coming out on top after going wheel-to-wheel with Alonso going in to the first turn.
Both had got away well from the front row, but it was the world champion, no doubt spurred on by his passionate fans, who looked set to take the lead as he tried to brave it round the outside of the Ferrari through turn one.
However Massa held firm on the inside of the corner and the pair touched, forcing Alonso across the gravel and nearly into the path of his team-mate Hamilton and Raikkonen as he hurriedly rejoined the track.
Alonso's first corner move was a gamble that totally backfired, leaving him with a damaged car and a mountain to climb.
He tried to pass Raikkonen on the outside at turn 10 on the next lap, but was forced to settle into fourth place.
The first lap action had not all been at the front, as there was further chaos in the midfield.
As Giancarlo Fisichella, Anthony Davidson and Ralf Schumacher battled at turn 10, the following Alex Wurz was unsighted and smashed his Williams into the back of Schumacher’s Toyota – shattering his FW29’s front suspension and forcing him in to retirement.
The incident also forced the Toyota driver in for an unscheduled stop – a double blow for the Japanese squad after Jarno Trulli’s car had developed a fuel pump problem at the end of the formation lap.
At the front, Massa rapidly pulled away from Hamilton - who had outdragged Raikkonen at the start - with a succession of fastest laps.
He was six seconds clear by the end of lap 10.
But his team-mate Raikkonen – who had been hovering around a second behind Hamilton for the first nine laps – suddenly struck electrical problems and slowed.
The Finn limped back to the Ferrari garage and into his first retirement of the season – a huge blow to his world championship aspirations.
Raikkonen’s demise came amid a series of retirements in the opening 10 laps.
Red Bull’s Mark Webber (hydraulics) and Trulli had already pulled in to the garage before the right rear tyre on Scott Speed’s Toro Rosso spectacularly blew out on Catalunya’s main straight.
Meanwhile up front Massa had pulled out a 9.5s advantage by the time of his first pit stop on lap 19.
But for a few nervous moments all that effort looked as though it might have been in vain as an overfill on the fuel caused a flash fire on his Ferrari.
Luckily for the Brazilian, however, the conflagration did little damage and he was able to get back on the pace at the start of his second stint.
Massa was followed into the pits by the man who started alongside him on the front row, Alonso, but the Spaniard was now already out of the reckoning for a home victory.
But he then gambled for a second time by opting to take on the harder compound tyres for the second stint in a bid to claw back lost ground – a decision that would see him fall further back from the top two and in to the clutches of the chasing pack behind.
Within a few laps, the Spaniard was only a couple of seconds ahead of BMW’s Robert Kubica, enjoying by far his best weekend of the season, with Red Bull’s David Coulthard running close behind in fifth.
Lewis, as he hinted to ITV Sport following qualifying, did indeed have more fuel on board than both his team-mate and Massa, pulling in for service three laps later than they had.
This allowed him to close to within eight seconds of his Ferrari rival, but it proved to be a false dawn as despite the fire, Massa increased his lead further in the race’s second stint.
By the time of the final round of stops, Massa - who again was the first of the leading runners to pit - had a virtually insurmountable 19.3s advantage in his pocket.
Hamilton ran longer on the fuel, by four laps, and although he used the extra laps on the softer compound to claw back some ground, he still emerged from his second stop 11s adrift.
From here Massa managed the gap to the young Briton in the final 20 laps, eventually crossing the line 6.7s ahead of F1’s youngest-ever world championship leader.
Alonso’s lacklustre afternoon ended with a distant third, with Kubica picking up a solid five points for fourth after an impressive weekend.
He would have had a close race with his BMW team-mate Nick Heidfeld had the German not been waved out of his first pit stop before his right front wheel was properly attached.
Heidfeld had to tip-toe back around to the pits for the wheel to be secured, and later retired with gearbox failure.
Another driver to star was Coulthard who scored his best result since his podium in last year’s Monaco GP, although the Scot had a nervy final five laps after his RB3 lost a gear.
This allowed Nico Rosberg a shot at trying to steal fifth place for Williams, but he ran out of laps and had to settle for sixth.
Heikki Kovalainen underlined his growing confidence with seventh and at times was even the fastest driver on the track, but his race was marred by a fuel rig problem that forced both Renaults to make additional stops.
Probably the happiest team in the whole paddock was Super Aguri, who at the 22nd attempt finally scored its first F1 point thanks to Takuma Sato.
Sato took advantage of a late splash-and-dash fuel stop from Fisichella to take eighth place and no doubt sent his massed ranks of Japanese supporters wild back home.
But in contrast to the 160,000 Spaniards in the Barcelona grandstands, their own home hero had not quite delivered the result they had been looking for.
Spanish Grand Prix result (66 laps)
1. MASSA Ferrari 66 laps
2. HAMILTON McLaren +6.790s
3. ALONSO McLaren +17.456s
4. KUBICA BMW +31.615s
5. COULTHARD Red Bull +58.331s
6. ROSBERG Williams +59.538s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m02.128s
8. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
9. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
10. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
12. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
13. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
14. ALBERS Spyker +2 laps
R. HEIDFELD BMW +18 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +20 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +45 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +55 laps
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +55 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +56 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +57 laps
R. WURZ Williams +62 laps
Fastest lap: MASSA 1m22.680s (lap 14)
Enzo Ferrari