Ferrari
Ferrari may have claimed a one-two finish to celebrate the 100th success under Luca di Montezemolo's presidency, but there was not the battle between Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in Bahrain that some commentators were keen to make out.The Brazilian swept into the lead by the first turn, negating Robert Kubica's maiden pole position almost immediately before going on to take his sixth career win, while Raikkonen also made short work of the BMW Sauber challenge to slot into an early second spot. Although the gap between the two F2008s fluctuated slightly over the rest of the race, it would appear that Massa was never under any real threat from his team-mate, despite the Brazilian trailing Raikkonen by eleven points going into the Bahrain round.
"A great result which proves the worth of the F2008 and of our team," Luca Baldisseri commented, "Once we had moved into the positions we wanted, we asked the drivers to manage the cars very carefully. There was no need to push, nor to take unnecessary risks."
Raikkonen repeated his claim that second place was the best he could have hoped for after a disappointing weekend in which he could not get his car handling the way he wanted, but moved into the lead of the world championship after erstwhile number one, Lewis Hamilton, suffered a bigger nightmare, making a bad start and then running into the back of Fernando Alonso.
"Second place was the best I could hope for on a weekend which was definitely not the best for me," the world champion emphasised, "These eight points move me into the lead of the championship and that is definitely a reason for me to leave Bahrain reasonably satisfied. Sometimes you get weekends like this, but I am convinced that, in Barcelona, the situation will be different."
Raikkonen lost the chance to challenge Massa after a glitch with Ferrari's innovative pit-stop light system - designed to replace the traditional 'lollipop' - caused him to make a slow getaway, but he insists that that was only a small part of his problems.
"My first stop was not very quick because we had a problem with the lights, but it definitely did not affect the final result," he noted, "Once I had consolidated my position, I managed the situation, trying not to push the car too much, knowing how important it is to always bring home the points."
The second victory of the season for Ferrari came in the 100th race under di Montezemolo's presidency, and moved the Scuderia into a strong second place in the constructors championship, behind BMW Sauber.
"After a bad start to the season, we have proved we know how to react with our actions," team boss Stefano Domenicali commented, "We worked well all weekend and the results therefore followed. Now we have to continue down this road, without allowing our absolute concentration to slip for a moment because, in a championship that looks like being very close, it takes almost nothing to lose precious points."
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