Bahrain Grand Prix Review

The 2008 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix saw Felipe Massa kick start his championship campaign. The Brazilian had come under fire in the media after two DNF's in the opening two rounds of the season. Starting from 2nd, beside polish driver Robert Kubica (who scored his and BMW's first pole position) Massa led from the start, and outdrive his world champion teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who got 2nd securing Ferrari a 1-2. BMW were easily the 2nd best team, with Kubica scoring his second successive podium in 3rd, and Nick Heidfeld coming home 4th.

Heikki Kovalinen was a distant 5th for McLaren, who had a disasterous day. They weren't really on the pace of the Ferrari's and BMW's, and Lewis Hamilton could only manage 13th after initially bogging down at the start, then coliding with his former teammate Fernando Alonso, having to pit for a new nose cone. Suggestions the Spaniard deliberately brake tested Hamilton wereas dispelled after the race when telemetary was studied.

Rounding out the top 8 were Jarno Trulli, who continued to demonstrate the pace of his Toyota, Mark Webber for Red Bull who took his second successive 7th and Nico Rosberg picked up a point with 8th for Williams.

Selected Driver Quotes

"This race was quite difficult, I didn't want to make any mistakes, I wanted to bring the car home and control the pace, I had all the time in my mind what happened in the last race and I am sure that is normal, and what is in my mind now is the victory." Felipe Massa, Winner

"We look at a bad weekend and we finished second, so never mind, next race will be different. We are leading the championship and that is the main thing, but it was not the easiest weekend for sure. I never am too happy at this circuit, but I think out of these first three races it is important to get many points." Kimi Raikkonen, 2nd

"It's very good to be on the podium for the second race in a row but without the problems on the second lap, I might have been able to fight with Kimi. (The Pole slipped on oil losing second to Raikkonen) I was going to pit. I didn't have any information about the oil and lost a place to Kimi. But anyway it's a good result and it's good for the team to be leading the constructors' championship." Robert Kubica, 3rd

"It was very difficult, and we knew that. The whole weekend has been quite bad for us apart from yesterday being in Q3, which was the only nice surprise of the weekend. The rest has not been good enough, not our level. In the race we were struggling and behind all the teams we are fighting with, Williams, Red Bull, and Toyota. So we cannot be happy with the result." Fernando Alonso, 10th

"It was a disaster. It was a very poor performance and I sort of let the team down today. It sort of went bad from the beginning, but I'll keep my chin up and move on and bounce back in the next race." Lewis Hamilton, 13th

Final Result

1. MASSA Ferrari +1hr31m06.970s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +3.3s
3. KUBICA BMW +4.9s
4. HEIDFELD BMW +8.4s
5. KOVALAINEN McLaren +26.7s
6. TRULLI Toyota +41.3s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +45.4s
8. ROSBERG Williams +55.8s
9. GLOCK Toyota +69.5s
10. ALONSO Renault +77.1s
11. BARRICHELLO Honda +77.8s
12. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
13. HAMILTON McLaren +1 lap
14. NAKAJIMA Williams +1 lap
15. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +1 lap
16. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
17. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
18. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
19. SUTIL Force India +2 laps
R. PIQUET Renault +17 laps
R. BUTTON Honda +38 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +57 laps

Fastest lap: KOVALAINEN 1m33.193s