Felipe Massa Relaunches F1 Championship with Win in Valencia

The Formula One circus was in Valencia, Spain, for the first time in its history, and Felipe Massa won in his Ferrari with a little bit of controversy.

The Brazilian driver did commit a mistake when he left his stall after his final stop. He almost collided with Adrian Sutil in the pit lane and this event will be reviewed by the officials. If the result holds, the race for the title will really be in the balance.

The second place for Lewis Hamilton today allowed him to stay in front but the lead could be reduced to a mere six points over Massa.

Starting from the third position on the grid, Robert Kubica finished in third place and now stands only two points behind Kimi Raikkonen who had to retire today, because of another blown engine for Ferrari.

This is already the fourth engine failure for the Scuderia this season, very uncharacteristic for the team. Just before the engine failure, Raikkonen ran over one of his teammate in the pit lane during his final pit stop. Another race to forget for the defending champion.

As for the rest of the points finishers, Jarno Trulli placed in fifth and continues his great season for Toyota. Sebastian Vettel, sixth, was once again impressive in the Toro Rosso.

The only things missing in this Grand Prix were battles on the track. Overtaking was not on the program today. Maybe this was due to the configuration of the circuit.

European Grand Prix Top 10 finishers

Winner: Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
2-Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) +5.6 seconds
3-Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber) +37.3 seconds
4-Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) +39.7 seconds
5-Jarno Trulli (Toyota) +50.6 seconds
6-Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) +52.6 seconds
7-Timo Glock (Toyota) +1:07.9
8-Nico Rosberg (Williams) +1:11.4
9-Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) +1:22.1
10-Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso) +1:29.7

Drivers championship after 12 of 18 races:

1-Lewis Hamilton 70 points
2-Felipe Massa 64 points
3-Kimi Raikkonen 57 points
4-Robert Kubica 55 points
5-Heikki Kovalainen 43 points
6-Nick Heidfeld 41 points
7-Jarno Trulli 26 points
8-Fernando Alonso 18 points
9-Mark Webber 18 points
10-Timo Glock 15 points
11-Nelson Piquet Jr 13 points
12-Rubens Barrichello 11 points
13-Nico Rosberg 9 points
14-Sebastian Vettel 9 points
15-Kazuki Nakajima 8 points
16-David Coulthard 6 points
17-Jenson Button 3 points
18-Sebastien Bourdais 2 points

Constructors championship

1-Ferrari 121 points
2-McLaren 113 points
3-BMW-Sauber 96 points
4-Toyota 41 points
5-Renault 31 points
6-Red Bull 24 points
7-Williams 17 points
8-Honda 14 points
9-Toro Rosso 11 points

(Picture: Felipe Massa, Getty Images.)