Felipe Massa sent out a clear message to his
Ferrari employers that they should start to focus all their efforts on him for the remainder of the 2008
Formula 1 World Championship campaign after dominating the European Grand Prix from pole position.
Just as he had been in Hungary three weeks earlier, the Ferrari star proved peerless around the winding streets of the all-new, harbour-side Juan Carlos I Marina circuit in Valencia the only question afterwards was whether he would be allowed to keep the win
Prior to the race start most teams and drivers were factoring the likelihood of one or several safety car appearances into their strategic calculations, with some starting towards back of the grid chancing their hand with a one-stopper. The safety car would never materialise.
Massa made a textbook getaway when the lights went out, but a tardy
Lewis Hamilton had to rebuff a challenge from
Robert Kubica through the opening few corners, as behind the pair
Heikki Kovalainen significantly vaulted past countryman
Kimi Raikkonen into fourth.
Further back, though, there was less decorum, as
David Coulthard got spun around from behind rejoining dead last and
Kazuki Nakajima calamitously clouted the back of home hero
Fernando Alonso's
Renault as the pack concertina-d up in turns four and five, unceremoniously removing the back of the Spaniard's rear wing and his own nose cone and in one fell blow shattering the hopes of the capacity crowd.
Both were left to tour around to the pits for repairs, but sadly for Alonso whose weekend had run far from smoothly from the off, from his disproportionate 10,000 fine for crossing the white line on the exit of the pit-lane during practice to his failure to make the top ten in qualifying it was game over before the first lap had even been completed.
