Felipe Massa made up for his Malaysian disappointments with a great victory for Ferrari in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. Yet again, however, all eyes were on Lewis Hamilton as the 22 year-old rookie stormed into second place only 2.3s adrift of him after a gripping chase in the final stages. Overshadowed by both all day, Kimi Raikkonen was third, a further 8.4s behind, with Nick Heidfeld driving a superb race for BMW Sauber to keep world champion Fernando Alonso in his mirrors after passing him round the outside in a dramatic move on the 32nd lap.

The result puts Hamilton, Alonso and Raikkonen in the joint lead of the drivers’ world championship, with 22 points apiece. Massa moves up to fourth on 17, with Heidfeld fifth on 15.

The race was always a battle between Massa and Hamilton, the Brazilian holding a narrow advantage which he extended after the first stops. The McLarens had the weaker middle stint, but came back with a vengeance in the third on their harder compound Bridgestones. Crucially for Ferrari, Raikkonen took third place from Alonso after the first stops, but equally important for McLaren a longer middle stint for Hamilton saw him just keep ahead of the Finn when he rejoined after his second pit call. Instead of being the hunted, as he was in Sepang, Hamilton then became the hunter, slashing Massa’s 7.6s advantage to 2.3s in the remaining 13 laps and leaving Raikkonen trailing. The result answered several questions, not the least of which was how Massa would react in a straight fight with Raikkonen, and how Hamilton would perform in one with Alonso. Three races in, and the rookie not only leads the world championship (albeit jointly) but is the first man ever to finish on the podium in his first three races.

It was a good day for BMW Sauber, as Robert Kubica took a distant sixth for the team. Jarno Trulli put Toyota in the points again with seventh place after a fabulous mid-race scrap with the similarly-powered Williams of Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz. The latter both fell back, however, allowing Giancarlo Fisichella to take the final point for the once mighty Renault team, ahead of partner Heikki Kovalainen.

The Williams pilots were eventually 10th and 11th, helped on their way by the retirements of the two Red Bulls. David Coulthard drove a stormer, but neither he nor Mark Webber made it home, the former suffering a driveshaft failure, the latter left frustrated first by a sticking fuel flap and then by gearbox problems. Nor did the Toro Rossos, Scott Speed coming together with Jenson Button on lap one, and Tonio Liuzzi being delayed by the same incident and eventually retiring - though not before picking up a drive-through penalty for passing under the safety car that came out briefly following the Speed and Button incident.

Ralf Schumacher was an undistinguished 12th, having been thoroughly drubbed by Anthony Davidson, who was headed for 12th when his Honda V8 went the same way as team mate Takuma Sato’s - up in smoke - after he had outpaced the Japanese pilot. Honda’s only finisher was thus Rubens Barrichello, in 13th, ahead of the Spykers of Christijan Albers and Adrian Sutil, who was forced to make an early stop after sustaining damage as a result of the first-lap melee. Reminded of his new status as the only man with successive podiums in the three opening rounds, Hamilton had one word: “Sweet!”

This is Felipe's third career win and the second for the Scuderia at this circuit. For Ferrari, this is win number 194 from 744 Grand Prix starts.

Jean Todt: "Pole position, quickest race lap and the win: a truly perfect weekend for Felipe. This great result was completed with a third place for Kimi, which helped bring home some precious points for the two Championships.
 

"It was a very had and closely contested race, with three teams in the running. We have made up ground in both classifications and now we plan to make the most of the weeks leading up to the race in Barcelona to try and improve every aspect of our package, from performance to reliability. I want to thank our technical partners, first and foremost Shell and Bridgestone, which in its new role as sole tyre supplier, has provided the teams with two types of tyre that are competitive and consistent in terms of performance. We can see that the fight for the titles will be very tight."

Felipe Massa: "A great result and it's nice that we now have a long break during which I can enjoy thinking about it! After the first two races did not go so well for me, we put everything together today. The team did a great job today in terms of the strategy and the car set-up and everything else. But I will dedicate this win to my girlfriend Raffaela who has had to be very patient with me this weekend! But we still need to work hard to maintain the momentum and the slight advantage that we have. During the first stint my car was not so well balanced, I had a bit too much understeer and then the second was fantastic for me with the tyres working very well. On the final stint, after my second pit stop, I had the harder tyres and having looked at the gap, I concentrated on looking after the car and did not need to increase the gap. I lost a bit of time to backmarkers too. The championship is very close now so these are ten very important points!"

Kimi Raikkonen: "I am happy with these six points, but I can't be completely satisfied with this result. At the start, I think I made a small mistake but I was still in a position where I could try and overtake Lewis, but in the end I lost a place to Alonso and spent all of the first stint right behind him, with no chance of getting by. We managed it at the pit stop, but to be on the safe side we decided to shorten slightly the second stint. I managed to close on Lewis but then, with the different strategy it wasn't possible to get by him. In the final stint, I chose to manage the situation given that I could not get past Lewis. When you come up behind a car it gets hard to drive and today's strong wind certainly didn't make things any easier. We now have to work on improving our performance. In the next test in Barcelona, we have some new parts coming and I hope they will mean we can make a good step forward."

Luca Baldisserri: "That was a really great race, especially from Felipe, who has been very quick all weekend. It was a shame that Kimi's race was compromised after he lost a place after the start. He managed to get by Alonso in the pit stop, but having shortened the second stint, he was unable to do the same thing to Hamilton, even though he had completely closed up the gap that had grown in the previously. The two F2007 worked very well and there were no technical problems at all. This is result is a reward for all the hard work from the team here at Sakhir and in Maranello, after a difficult weekend in Sepang. Now there is a bit of a break in the calendar and we will have to make the most of it to improve our performance and up the level of reliability of the cars. In the Barcelona test prior to the race at the same track, we will have some new parts, but we know that our rivals won't be standing still either."

Race Details: Felipe Massa: 1st 1:33.27.515 57 laps chassis 260; Kimi Raikkonen: 3rd + 10.839 57 laps chassis 261; Weather: air temperature 30/28°C, track temperature 41/38°C, clear skies.