Results of the Bahrain 2007 F1 Grand Prix

Three races into the season, three different winners and three drivers now tied on 22 points for the title race. Wide open? You bet! And the man everyone is talking about the most isn’t even among those three winners. Filipe Massa may have claimed the chequered flag at Sakir, but it was runner up Lewis Hamilton – for the second race running - that is really caused an excitement in the pit paddocks.

Claiming his second pole in as many races, the Brazilian driver didn’t screw it up this time around in his Ferrari, leading from the start. And his teammate Kimi Raikkonen finished third behind McLaren’s sensational new rookie, Hamilton. The Briton wrote himself into the record books, climbing onto the podium for the third time in as many starts. His champion teammate Fernando Alonso slipped back into fifth, as the two BMW-Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica finished either side of him.

With the finishing order virtually unchanged from the grid, It was again the Ferraris and McLarens which dominated the race, with another strong showing from BMW, who now sit a surprising third in the Constructors’ Championship standings, well ahead of last year’s champions Renault. Their best finish was eighth, as Giancarlo Fishichella failed to pip Toyota’s Jarno Trulli in the final laps.

British team Williams-BMW will have been pleased with their 10th and 11th places, compared to last season’s results, while the other Renault of Heikki Kovalainen finished just outside of the points. As for Jenson Button, his season is going from bad to worse, as his uncompetitive Honda started among the tail-enders only to collide with Scott Speed in the Torro Rosso at the first corner.

It was a regrettable day too for Red Bull Racing, whose much improved cars were running as high as sixth and seventh before mechanical failures ended the races of both David Coulthard (lap 36) and Mark Webber (lap 41). Apart from that it was an uneventful race with no exciting positional changes resulting from pit stop strategy and little wheel to wheel racing among the points finishers. The only change was a lost place to Fernando Alonso, who complained of handling problems.

Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso all share the title race with 22 points, while Massa is on 17, ahead of Nick Heidfeld. However, McLaren retain a lead of 5 points over Ferrari who are on 39 in the Constructors’ log.

Bahrain Grand Prix result:
1 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 33 minutes 27.515 seconds
2 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 2.360sec behind
3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari @ 10.839sec
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber @ 13.831sec
5 Fernando Alonso (Sp) McLaren-Mercedes @ 14.426sec
6 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber @ 45.529sec
7 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota @ 1min 21.371sec
8 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault @ 1:21.701
9 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault @ 1:29.411
10 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota @ 1:29.916
11 Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota @ 1 Lap
12 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota @ 1 Lap
13 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda @ one lap
14 Christijan Albers (Ned) Spyker-Ferrari @ two laps
15 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Spyker-Ferrari @ four laps
16 R A Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda 53 Laps completed
R M Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault 41 laps completed
R D Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 36 laps
R T Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda 34 laps
R V Liuzzi (Ita) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 26 Laps
R J Button (GB) Honda R 0 laps
R S Speed (USA) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 0 laps