Round 3 - Bahrain

Felipe Massa answered his critics and finally got his world title challenge up and running with a flawless victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix, beating team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari 1-2.
The pint-sized Brazilian had spent the last few days fending off speculation that his Ferrari drive was in jeopardy for 2009 after error-strewn performances in the first two races.
Having been the man to beat all weekend at Sakhir, Massa simply had to deliver the goods under pressure on Sunday – and duly did so in immaculate fashion to seal his second consecutive win at the desert track.
Raikkonen pushed his team-mate hard in the race’s middle stages, but ultimately didn’t have enough pace to mount a challenge and had to settle for second place.
That was enough to give him the world championship lead after a disastrous afternoon for erstwhile points leader Lewis Hamilton.
The McLaren star lost seven places at the start and then tripped over Fernando Alonso’s slow-moving Renault, leaving him to play catch-up from near the back of the field with a wounded car.
Pole-sitter Robert Kubica finished a strong third ahead of team-mate Nick Heidfeld – putting BMW Sauber in the lead of the constructors’ championship for the first time in the team’s short history.
Off the startline, Massa got better traction than Kubica and steamed ahead on the run to the first corner.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had almost stalled when the lights flicked off and found himself bundled all the way back to 10th place.
His predicament worsened on the next lap when, accelerating out of turns two and three, he struck the back of Alonso’s Renault, briefly getting airborne and tearing off the McLaren’s nose cone.
The Spaniard’s car seemed to hesitate just as Hamilton pulled into his slipstream – prompting the more cynical observers to conclude that Alonso had brake-tested his former team-mate and nemesis.
However, telemetry traces from the Renault seen by ITV Sport revealed nothing untoward, confirming that Alonso had accelerated normally out of the corner, and Hamilton put the clash down to a "racing incident".
After trundling back to the pits with minimal front downforce and pitting for repairs, Lewis rejoined a full minute in arrears of leader Massa.
Felipe had taken advantage of a tight scrap for second place to pull out an immediate cushion and set about stamping his authority on the race.
Heikki Kovalainen briefly snatched third from Raikkonen in turn two, but was repassed by his fellow Finn further round the opening lap, and two laps later ceded fourth place to Heidfeld.
Meanwhile Raikkonen picked off Kubica with a well-judged move around the outside of turn one, establishing a Ferrari 1-2.
The die was cast for the afternoon; the only question was whether Massa would have the race to himself, or would face a challenge from his team-mate.
Massa’s lead stood at nearly five seconds by the first round of pit stops – and looked even more secure when he stayed out a lap longer than Raikkonen.
Kubica had pursued Kimi closely throughout the first stint, but confirmed the suspicion that he had run slightly lighter than the Ferraris in qualifying when he became the first of the front-runners to pit on lap 18.
After making a mistake on his out-lap – locking up into turn 11 and running wide off the track – the Pole’s challenge for second place fizzled out and he concentrated instead on maintaining a margin over team-mate Heidfeld.
Through the middle phase of the race Massa began to come under pressure for the first time, as Raikkonen turned up the wick and began to erode his team-mate’s lead.
He trimmed the deficit from more than five seconds following the first stops to 4.3s on lap 30 and 3.3s by lap 33.
But Massa was not about to let a vital race slip from his grasp, and responded with a new fastest lap on lap 38.
When Kimi pitted a lap earlier than him at the second stops, Ferrari called off the duel and Massa was able to canter to the chequered flag.
As the Ferraris relaxed their pace over the closing laps, the BMW drivers continued to push hard and, with the track offering more grip than it had all afternoon, began to post new fastest laps.
Kubica kept team-mate Heidfeld at bay to ensure his second podium appearance in as many races, while Kovalainen came home a distant fifth after a lonely afternoon.
Seemingly from nowhere, the Finn clocked the race’s fastest lap in the closing stages, but his relative lack of pace through most of the race will surely give McLaren cause for concern.
Jarno Trulli scored more points for Toyota after a spirited drive to sixth place, confirming the progress the Japanese squad has made over the winter.
Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber finished seventh for the second race running, having leapfrogged Nico Rosberg’s Williams in the first pit stop cycle.
The German’s confidence that the FW30 would be more competitive in the race than in qualifying proved misplaced, and he was reduced to playing a bit part in the proceedings.
Hamilton, meanwhile, had made painfully slow progress from the back of the field.
All was clearly not well with his McLaren’s handling, and he only advanced as far as 13th place by the flag.