Pole Position, the fastest lap of the race and the Bahrain Grand Prix win for Felipe Massa vaults the Brazilian back into the title battle after a flawless drive this afternoon at the Sakhir circuit. Lewis Hamilton finished his third Grand Prix in second position ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld, while Fernando Alonso had to be content on this occasion with fifth position.
The championship standings make interesting reading with Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton all tied on 22 points while Massa get the full ten points today and is now on 17 after three Grand Prix.
The start saw Massa lead the way into turn one and while Hamilton had his now trademark first-lap attempt to try and find a way ahead of his Ferrari rival. Unlike Malaysia the rookie was unable to find a gap but he kept the pressure on Massa until the first round of pitstops.
Massa made no mistakes at the front of the field and as both Hamilton and Alonso struggled for pace during the second stint pulled out a ten second advantage ahead of the final stops. Hamilton would find a better turn of speed on the harder tyres in the final stint, but despite closing down the gap to just over two seconds, Massa was in full control on his way to his first win of the season.
Kimi Raikkonen started third and finished in the same position. The Melbourne winner lost out to Alonso at the start however and would regain the position in the first round of pitstops. Raikkonen took the chequered flag 11 seconds behind team-mate Massa.
The second stint would prove costly for Alonso as he struggled with his second set of tyres. Nick Heidfeld took full advantage of the situation with a lovely move around the outside of Alonso to claim fourth position, a place he would retain to the chequered flag. Alonso put the pressure on in the final laps, but had to settle for fifth position this time out.
Robert Kubica had a lonely race to sixth position and was not able to lap on the pace of his BMW Sauber team-mate Heidfeld finishing the 57 lap event half a minute adrift.
Jarno Trulli had a solid race in is Toyota to claim seventh position ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella. The two Italian racers battled hard in the second half of the race with Trulli getting the jump in the final round of stops. Ralf Schumacher was not a factor in the second Toyota but did hold off Rubens Barrichello in the Honda to claim 12th position.
It was a tough race again for Renault. Fisichella started seventh and finished in eighth position to claim the final point. He was however the benefit of a double Red Bull Renault retirement and it fair to say that the team will be relieved just to take a point away from Bahrain. Heikki Kovalainen finished ninth in the second Renault after some good battled throughout the race.
Nico Rosberg had more than his fair share off track moment in his Williams Toyota and will be disappointed to finish in tenth position, half a second behind Kovalainen. Alex Wurz raced hard in the second Williams to finish 11th.
Over at Spyker Ferrari, the team will be happy to get a race completed with both cars going the distance. Christijan Albers finished two laps down in 14th while Adrian Sutil lost several lap at the start of the race as he pitted with damage to the front of his Spyker. Sutil was classified in 15th position four laps down.
Red Bull Renault will be unhappy as they leave Bahrain as David Coulthard drove a storming race to work his way up to seventh position only to retire with a driveshaft problem. Webber, also running seventh would soon pull his RB3 off track with a mechanical problem. The team have good pace, but poor reliability.
Over at Super Aguri Honda both Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson suffered engine failures. Scott Speed and Jenson Button got together on the first lap to bring out the safety car while Tonio Liuzzi retired his Toro Rosso with a mechanical problem.
It couldn’t be closer as the teams pack up and head back to Europe with three races complete and three race winners.