Felipe Massa wins 2007 Spanish Grand Prix

Topics:  Spanish Grand Prix

Wikinews
May 13, 2007

Felipe Massa, driving for Ferrari, won the 2007 FIA Formula One Spanish Grand prix at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. He made a second hat-trick (pole position, fastest lap, win) after the 2007 Bahrain Grand Prix.

The race was marred at the start by Jarno Trulli stalling his Toyota at the first start, which was placed 6th on the grid after qualifying. After stalling, the field was released to do another installation lap to recover the Toyota to the pitlane, where he would start the race. He would retire just 8 laps later with the same fuel pump issue that caused him to stall on the grid. The race was one lap shorter as a result. Starting from pole, the Brazilian controlled the race from the start, when in the first corner he had slight contact with Fernando Alonso from the McLaren-Mercedes team in the battle for the lead. This caused Fernando to ran wide to the gravel trap while his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen passed his much slower car. However, this was not the only drama on the first lap. Alexander Wurz, driving the Williams-Toyota, slammed into the back of Ralf Schumacher's much slower Toyota, and destroyed his front wing and part of the suspension. As a consequence, he had to park it in the garage and retire from the Grand Prix.

In the early part of the race Kimi Raikkonen suffered an electrical problem with his Ferrari car and had to return it to the pits. This was the crucial moment of the race, when the Spaniard returned one place back. The McLaren team occupied second and third place, which stayed that way at the end of the race.

Robert Kubica, the young BMW Sauber driver from Poland, was 4th, replacing his teammate Nick Heidfeld, who was out due to the gearbox failure. David Coulthard, the Red Bull-Renault driver, finished 5th, but struggled for several laps towards the end after he lost 3rd gear. He was in danger of being caught and passed by Nico Rosberg, who was 6th for Williams-Toyota. Heikki Kovalainen was 7th for Renault, and Takuma Sato got Super Aguri-Honda's first points finish in 8th place, after Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault had to make an unscheduled pit-stop for more fuel. Both Renaults had problems with their fuel rigs, which meant they made one more stop than they had planned.

FIA Formula One official championship standings is now headed by Hamilton with 30 points, 2 points ahead of Alonso and 3 ahead of Massa. McLaren-Mercedes now have a 9 point lead over Ferrari in the Constructers standings.

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