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Formula One

Massa wins ahead of Hamilton in first GP staged in Valencia

24/08/2008

Ferrari's Felipe Massa outpaced title rival Lewis Hamilton to cruise to victory in the European grand prix in Valencia.

Massa, who started on pole, led from the start to clinch his fourth win of the season.

Hamilton's McLaren failed to get close to Massa's Ferrari and finished a comfortable second ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica.

The Briton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen took fourth, Toyota's Jarno Trulli was fifth, while world champion Kimi Raikkonen retired with more engine problems.

Hamilton now leads Massa by six points in the drivers' standings, with Raikkonen 13 points adrift.

The Ferrari's pace was evident in the early stages with race leader Massa building up a three-second lead over Hamilton after seven laps.

The only drama in the early stages came on the opening lap when Fernando Alonso was forced out of the race after Kazuki Nakajima's Williams ploughed into the back of his Renault.

Massa came into pit on lap 15 and exited ahead of team-mate Raikkonen, who was languishing in fifth place.

That gave Hamilton the chance to set a new lap time before the Briton pitted on lap 17, and re-entered the race behind both Ferraris.

Hamilton was unable to launch a challenge on Massa, with the Brazilian building up a five-second advantage on lap 25.

That lead increased to 9.6 seconds by lap 34 after the Ferrari driver set another blistering lap on the street circuit.

Massa survived a scare when he made his second pit stop on lap 37 after nearly crashing into the back of Force India driver Adrian Sutil, which FIA officials are investigating.

But his team-mate Raikkonen did not have the same luck when his race ended on lap 45 with smoke pouring out of his engine. It also emerged the Finn accidentally ran over a Ferrari mechanic who was taken to the medical centre.

Unlike in Hungary earlier this month, Massa's car did not let him down and he took the chequered flag to blow the title race wide open.

The next race is at Spa for the Belgium grand prix on September 7th.