European GP: Massa's Controversial Victory

Ferrari's Felipe Massa keeps the winner's trophy despite a controversial pit-lane incident with Force India's Adrian Sutil during their second pit stop. Adrian Sutil was coming down the pit lane and heading for the exit when Felipe Massa came out from his pitstop and was wheel-to-wheel with the Force India driver, backing down only at the last second to avoid a collision that might end both their races.

The final results were pending for the race stewards post-race investigation. Eventually, the stewards decided that the incident did not cause much damage and fined Massa 10,000 Euros as well as giving him an earful.

Felipe Massa was not the only Ferrari driver to have an eventful pitstop. His teammate Kimi Räikkönen, who had a very disappointing race after losing out to Heikki Kovalainen at the starting grid and falling to the 5th place, almost dragged a Ferrari mechanic along with him during his second pit stop. He went into the pit stop with Heikki Kovalainen and was hoping to beat the fellow Finn with a well-executed pitstop, but in a haste to get out ahead of Kovalainen, Kimi failed to see that the refuelling rig was still attached to his car and sped out. The Ferrari mechanics tumbled over one another, with one of them having to be taken to the medical centre. Räikkönen not only lost out the 4th position to Kovalainen, but also the fifth position to Jarno Trulli. Just when the day could not get any worse, he retired a few laps later with a blown engine - the second of two blown Ferrari engines in two races.

The biggest disappointment of the day surely belonged to Fernando Alonso. In front of a sell-out home crowd, the Spaniard retired merely after one lap of action after being hit from the back by Williams' Kazuki Nakajima. Adrian Sutil also suffered a DNF (did-not-finish) after he lost control of the car and plunged into a tyre-wall.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen had relatively quiet and safe race to ensure both drivers in point-scoring positions, but Kovalainen's inability to rival Robert Kubica's third-placed BMW will be a point of concern for the McLaren team.

Sebastian Vettel proved once again that he is a youngster full of potential as he finished 6th. Timo Glock managed a 7th place finish with just a one pit stop strategy, and Nico Rosberg makes a reappearance into the top 8 finally by rounding up the top 8.

Top 3 - Lewis Hamilton (L), Felipe Massa (C), Robert Kubica (R). Copyright AFP/Rafa Rivas

Ferrari might have came out of this weekend at the top of the podium thanks to Felipe Massa (and perhaps to some extent, his talisman Michael Schumacher who was offering the Brazilian advices from the pit wall control). However, the lack of reliability of the Ferrari engine once again, as well as the poor performance from Kimi Räikkönen despite the Finn vowing to stage a comeback for the season, would be the questions in the Ferrari team as we head into the Spa circuit next. McLaren had a safe race, with no big risk taken by either of the drivers and scoring important points for the team and for Hamilton to maintain his lead in the Drivers' Championship.

The Valencia circuit was breathtaking in terms of scenery and while the circuit is demanding in terms of the drivers' skills, the lack of overtaking opportunities might be a bore to the fans who want to see more on-track actions. In about a month's time, we will be heading on to Singapore (finally!) for the last street circuit on the calendar this year. More straight roads, more overtaking opportunities and a night race, I'd say the Valencia GP has provided us a great build up to what to expect for the Singapore Grand Prix taking place on 26-28th September.

Results
01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:35:32.339
02 L. Hamilton McLaren + 5.600
03 R. Kubica BMW + 37.300
04 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 39.700
05 J. Trulli Toyota + 50.600
06 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 52.600
07 T. Glock Toyota + 1:07.900
08 N. Rosberg Williams + 1:11.400
09 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:22.100
10 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1:29.700
11 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 1:32.700
12 M. Webber Red Bull + 1 laps
13 J. Button Honda + 1 laps
14 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 1 laps
15 K. Nakajima Williams + 1 laps
16 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1 laps
18 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 12 laps
Did not finish
19 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 16 laps
20 F. Alonso Renault + 56 laps
Times from PlanetF1.com

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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