> Massa wins at bahrain..

Kimi Raikkonen remained on top of the timing charts in Friday afternoon’s practice in Bahrain – but this time it was a much closer-run thing as rookie Lewis Hamilton pushed him all the way.

Raikkonen had set the morning pace by an emphatic 0.5s margin – but by the end of the second 90-minute session, his advantage had dwindled to a microscopic 0.013s.

And this time it was McLaren rival Hamilton, rather than his team-mate Felipe Massa, who proved his closest competitor – suggesting that, once again, Ferrari can expect a stern challenge from the Woking squad this weekend.

Meanwhile BMW Sauber and Williams made their presence felt at the sharp end, with third-fastest Robert Kubica and sixth-fastest Alex Wurz both within half a second of Raikkonen’s time and their respective team-mates close behind.

In a session replete with order changes, the McLarens quickly moved to the top courtesy of a 1m34.211s lap by Fernando Alonso and a 1m34.413s from Hamilton.

Initially the Ferrari duo kept a low profile, before Massa uncorked a 1m34.043s lap to take over at the top of the charts with a little more than 30 minutes of the session in the books.

Alonso retaliated with a 1m33.784s at the halfway mark, and a few minutes later Raikkonen vaulted up to P2 with a 1m33.973s effort.

F1’s top two teams continued to trade fastest laps as the session drew towards its climax.

With 13 minutes left on the clock, Hamilton used a soft-tyre foray to post a 1m33.540s and demote his team-mate to P2.

Four minutes later, however, Raikkonen – also on the softer of the two Bridgestone compounds – had the final word with a 1m33.527s.

A strong late effort from Kubica left him just 0.2s shy of the Friday benchmark time and ahead of both Massa and Alonso.

Williams also had cause for encouragement, with Wurz an excellent sixth and Nico Rosberg eighth – sandwiched by the second BMW of Nick Heidfeld.

After languishing at the back of the field in the morning, Red Bull Racing had a better afternoon, ending up ninth (David Coulthard) and 14th (Mark Webber).

Jenson Button’s fortunes moved in the opposite direction after his mildly encouraging morning.

An hour into the afternoon’s running his RA107 suffered an apparent engine failure, with flames emanating from the rear and the ensuing oil slick throwing Massa into a spin.

Button wound up stone last on the timesheet, although Rubens Barrichello’s 11th place did at least sustain the hope that the team will be more competitive this weekend than at the season's first two races.

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m33.527s 2. HAMILTON McLaren 1m33.540s
3. KUBICA BMW 1m33.732s
4. MASSA Ferrari 1m33.772s
5. ALONSO McLaren 1m33.784s
6. WURZ Williams 1m33.973s
7. HEIDFELD BMW 1m34.076s
8. ROSBERG Williams 1m34.189s
9. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m34.359s
10. TRULLI Toyota 1m34.366s
11. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m34.391s
12. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m34.585s
13. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m34.595s
14. WEBBER Red Bull 1m34.677s
15. FISICHELLA Renault 1m34.796s
16. SATO Super Aguri 1m35.001s
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m35.268s
18. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m35.427s
19. SUTIL Spyker 1m35.582s
20. SPEED Toro Rosso 1m35.687s
21. ALBERS Spyker 1m35.835s
22. BUTTON Honda 1m36.079s

Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton will go head-to-head for the second successive grand prix after the pair dominated qualifying to line up alongside each other on the front row for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

A week on from their duel in Malaysia, the duo waged a private battle at the top of the timesheet throughout the three segments of qualifying to leave their more experienced team-mates to fill the second row.

While Massa continued to show his ability to bounce back from setbacks by taking his fourth pole position in the past five races, it was Formula 1’s newest star who again belied his inexperience by taking the first front-row start of his career.

Add the scalp of outqualifying the double world champion into the bargain on a day when he consistently outpaced the sport’s benchmark driver.

Indeed there had seemed a chance that Hamilton could even claim a sensational first pole position as he took the already stunning start to his F1 career up another level.

After the initial fuel-burning phase was dispensed with, Ferrari ace Massa set the first real target with a 1m33.090s, pipping Hamilton who managed a 1m33.18s.

It was on the last run that the McLaren protege looked like he might steal it, but a 'moment' at turn 13 left him 0.283s adrift of Massa's 1m32.632s effort.

All of this left the sport’s big two names, Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (McLaren), to play bit parts.

However the gaps to both their respective team-mates suggest the pair may have qualified with slightly heavier fuel loads, as Ferrari and McLaren sought to cover each other's strategic moves.

The BMW Saubers continued to strengthen the team’s position as the new third force in Formula 1 with fifth and sixth on the grid.

And it was Nick Heidfeld who once again got the better of his young team-mate Robert Kubica, despite the Pole finally getting a clear run at the end of Q3 for the first time this season.

Giancarlo Fisichella confirmed that Renault was right to suggest that it had more pace at Sakhir than it looked in Friday practice by taking seventh place – although the Italian only just squeaked through Q2 on his final lap.

Mark Webber maintained his 100 per cent appearance record in this season’s pole position shootouts, and the qualifying specialist went on to snare eighth on the grid for Red Bull Racing.

The Australian’s Q3 time was just quick enough to edge out the sport’s other renowned qualifying expert Jarno Trulli, who found speed in the TF107 that his team-mate Ralf Schumacher could not to keep his own strong 2007 record going.

Nico Rosberg rounded up the top 10 as he again outperformed his more experienced team-mate Alex Wurz.

The Austrian will line up a place behind, ahead of the second Renault of Heikki Kovalainen who was left watching the Q3 action from the garage once more.

The rookie's chances of matching Fisichella were not helped by yet another fuel pump problem with his race car prior to qualifying.

One place behind in 13th was arguably the star performer of Saturday, Anthony Davidson.

Not only did the Super Aguri ace consummately outqualify team-mate Takuma Sato for the first time, he also missed out on getting his Super Aguri in amongst the big boys in the final session by just 0.2s.

The Briton found himself ahead of Ralf Schumacher, whose Sakhir struggles continued, with the German still unable to find a set-up to his liking.

Honda looks set for another long race, with its current woes continuing on Saturday in Bahrain with both its drivers struggling in the lower reaches of the midfield.

Although the one change from the team's recent form saw Rubens Barrichello outqualify Jenson Button for the first time in 2007.

But while Button had predicted such a struggle, fellow Briton David Coulthard wasn’t expecting to miss out on Q2.

The Scot, who stopped out on the circuit in final practice, was unable to complete more than four laps in the first session after his RB3 suffered a gearbox-related problem.

It means Coulthard has now been knocked out in the first stage of qualifying for two of the season’s opening three races.


Starting grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari

2. HAMILTON McLaren

3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari

4. ALONSO McLaren

5. HEIDFELD BMW

6. KUBICA BMW

7. FISICHELLA Renault

8. WEBBER Red Bull

9. TRULLI Toyota

10. ROSBERG Williams

11. WURZ Williams

12. KOVALAINEN Renault

13. DAVIDSON Super Aguri

14. SCHUMACHER Toyota

15. BARRICHELLO Honda

16. BUTTON Honda

17. SATO Super Aguri

18. LIUZZI Toro Rosso

19. SPEED Toro Rosso

20. SUTIL Spyker

21. COULTHARD Red Bull

22. ALBERS Spyker

Massa has finally come of age to clinch his maiden victory of the season at bahrain. He started from pole and showed a great maturity and kept a cool head to remain be in the lead till the chequered flag. Behind him was the equally impressive Hamilton who now has finished all the races in this season with podium finishes. Raikkonen completed the podium with third place ahead of nick heidfield and the 'cry baby' Alonso. Although raikkonen lost his third place in the begining of the race to alonso, he fought really hard to finished third and once looked to even push hamilton for the second place

Wow!
Awesome... go ferrari go..
Kudos to hamilton man.

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Kudos to Hamilton.... but MASSA ROCKS!!! Ferrari rock !!!

Kimi actually messed up a bit...he shouldnt have lost the place to Alonos in the first place. And after his first pit stop, he lost a bit of time....

Anyway, cant really complain though....

Agree with u guys, but it was a good result for mclarren as well. I felt alonso was not looking that good. But he managed to finish in the top 5. Kimi was wonderful, except the start. BTW the lap record for this circuit was 1:30 set by schumi, and today the best lap was 1:34 odd set by massa, although the new Ferrari is much better than what was given to schumi. So we see why we miss schumi...

Lokesh....

It has nothing to do with Schumi. It is because of all the rules introduced. If you check the lap record, I am prepared to bet a 100 nickels that it was set in 2004 or 2005 with the V10 engines.

Oh thanks for reminding me nikhil, yes u are rite..

Absolutely!
So speed will obviously reduce and lap timings increase.
Nevertheless, Schumi did rock
and I do miss him

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