Felipe Massa has finally opened his 2008 account by repeating his 2007 Bahrain Grand Prix victory in Sakhir – but the big news of the weekend is how
BMW have replaced McLaren-Mercedes as the
Scuderia's closest challengers for glory this year, and how
Lewis Hamilton's championship bid is threatening to come off the rails only three races into the campaign.
The first time in 21 outings that neither a
Ferrari nor McLaren-Mercedes had graced pole position – and on a day with a particularly strong headwind – the 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix promised to be a tough one to call, with arguably any of the first four drivers on the grid in with a shout of winning.
There was drama even before the race got underway, indeed, with front row sitter Massa very late to arrive on the grid after encountering a radio problem on his warm-up lap and Nelsinho Piquet complaining of second gear stubbornly refusing to engage in his
Renault on the parade tour. And then when the lights went out, there was further drama still.
Robert Kubica failed to get away well from pole position – allowing Massa to breeze past on the run down to turn one – but that was nothing compared to the woes suffered by Hamilton, who bogged down off the line and slipped back a full seven places to the outer edges of the top ten as the field swept past. There were better fortunes for team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen, who not only did well to avoid running into the back of the sister MP4-23, but then went on to run right the way around the outside of countryman
Kimi Raikkonen in the first corner.
The Ferrari would get back ahead of the
McLaren again before the opening lap was out, with their squabbling allowing the front two to make good their escape. Further back, though, there was more action, as
Sebastian Vettel made light contact with
Giancarlo Fisichella before being pushed off into the turn four gravel trap by a mystery assailant and out of the race.
