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Finland’s Marcus Grönholm has moved back into the lead of the World Rally Championship by winning the Rally Italia after main rival Sébastien Loeb spun off in leg three.

Before sliding into a ditch and into retirement, the Frenchman looked set to take his fourth consecutive victory despite suffering a lack of grip on the loose gravel stages during leg one.

Grönholm’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen finished in second, which helped the Ford Rally team to remain ahead of Citroën in the manufacturers’ standings.

Dani Sordo came home in third, ahead of the Solberg brothers (Henning and Petter respectively).

Felipe Massa took his second successive victory with a dominant display in the Spanish Grand Prix. He led from pole position and despite a brief contact with double world champion and home favourite Fernando Alonso at the first corner, the Brazilian had the speed advantage to beat the McLarens for the race win. Lewis Hamilton benefited from his team-mate mistake to finish second and now leads the drivers’ standings after only four races in his Grand Prix career.

Alonso finished the race in a disappointed third place, after his failed attempt to take the race lead by going around of Massa into the turn one. The Ferrari and McLaren banged wheels and the Spaniard was forced to take a trip through the gravel, losing vital track positions to Lewis Hamilton and Kim Raikkonen.

From there on, Massa was in full control in the 65-lap race with only a brief scare during his first pit-stop, when a small fuel spillage caused a dramatic fire on the side of his F2007 as he pulled away. The damage was only superficial and the Brazilian went on to take his fourth career Grand Prix victory.

As for his Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen, the Finn was initially in third place split between the McLaren pair, but after just ten laps was forced to retire with an electrical problem. This retirement means the Finn drops down to fourth in the leader board with only 22 points.

Robert Kubica finished in fourth for BMW-Sauber, his best result of the year. As for his team-mate Nick Heidfeld, the German had a nightmare race when during his pit-stop Nick was signalled out before the right front wheel gun was disengaged…

Heidfeld managed to get going again but was forced to retire with fifth place on the cards. This left the way clear for David Coulthard in the Red Bull, scoring his and the team’s first points of the season. The Scot finished ahead of a tight battle featuring Nico Rosberg’s Williams and the three-stopping Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault.

Finishing in eighth and scoring that all-important championship point was Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri. The Japanese driver drove a superb race and benefited from the late pit stop of Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella.

The Spanish Grand Prix race results means Lewis Hamilton moves ahead of former record holder Bruce McLaren as the youngest driver ever to lead the world championship, with 30 points to Alonso’s 28, Massa’s 27 and Raikkonen’s 22.

“I keep saying I am living my dream,” he said, “and it’s really true. I’ve been working so hard, and to come out of my fourth grand prix leading the world championship, driving with top drivers in world, is just incredible.”

The championship now moves to the most glamorous race track on the calendar, the Monaco Grand Prix. Hamilton has an excellent record on the narrow streets circuit with last year’s GP2 race win. Can the Formula One rookie score his first win in two weeks time? Let’s wait and see.

Spanish Grand Prix result (65 laps)

1. MASSA Ferrari 1hr 31mins. 36.230secs
2. HAMILTON McLaren +6.790s
3. ALONSO McLaren +17.456s
4. KUBICA BMW Sauber +31.615s
5. COULTHARD Red Bull +58.331s
6. ROSBERG Williams +59.538s
7. KOVALAINEN Renault +1m02.128s
8. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
9. FISICHELLA Renault +1 lap
10. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
12. BUTTON Honda +1 lap
13. SUTIL Spyker +2 laps
14. ALBERS Spyker +2 laps
R. HEIDFELD BMW Sauber +18 laps
R. SCHUMACHER Toyota +20 laps
R. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +45 laps
R. SPEED Toro Rosso +55 laps
R. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +55 laps
R. TRULLI Toyota +56 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +57 laps
R. WURZ Williams +62 laps

Fastest lap: MASSA 1m22.680s (lap 14)

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa took his third successive pole position by beating his main championship rival and home crowd favourite Fernando Alonso by just three hundredths of a second.

This was another impressive performance by the Brazilian; his fifth in the past six races and tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix should be another great battle between Ferrari and McLaren.

By qualifying at the front, Massa will have the advantage of leading the chasing pack into the first corner. Overtaking at the Circuit de Catalunya will be tricky as the track relies on the aerodynamics of these modern spec Formula One racing cars. But the possibility of cars passing each other could come into effect with a new chicane at the end of the lap.

The Brazilian predicts that the Grand Prix will be difficult to call but Massa believes he has a good chance of winning in front of the Spanish crowd.

“Definitely it is very nice. Three pole positions in a row this year so I have a really quick and great car,” said Massa.

“I am happy to see the job of the team, for sure. I am really happy to be first in qualifying and we are looking forward to having a good race.

“I am really happy to be here, tomorrow will be difficult and tight race for all the Spanish people and everyone watching, hopefully we can have some good laps and a good race.”

Massa has again out-qualified his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, the Finn having to settle for third position for the third time running.

Raikkonen admitted he was happy with his car over the first two sectors of the circuit, but struggled with the handling in the final one.

“I think it is better than nothing,” said the Finn. “I was happier today with the car, I think we had good speed in the first two sectors but lost it all in the last. The car was difficult to drive.

“We have to get that right for tomorrow so we can drive, but it is not a bad position and we will see what happens.”

As for McLaren, double world champion Fernando Alonso remains confident for the race despite losing out on the top spot in the closing stages in qualifying.

“It has been a very good weekend for us so far with the car performing well, the front row of the grid is confirmation of how competitive the car is and how competitive the package is,” said Alonso.

“We are confident for tomorrow and we can see a very good race for the battle for the victory.”

His McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton will start the race in fourth but the British rookie might have the upper hand on the Spaniard with a better race strategy.

“We weren’t able to get any further up than fourth – I’m getting used to that position now in qualifying,” he said.

“But we had a slightly different strategy than Fernando at least, and I think we’re in good shape for tomorrow.

“If you work it out, I was just as quick, if not maybe quicker. But we will see.”

Behind the four fastest drivers came BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica, who managed to out-qualify his more experienced team-mate Nick Heidfeld. The German will start in eighth with the Toyota of Jarno Trulli split between them.

Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen made it into the top ten for the first time in his Formula One career with eighth, two places and three tenths of a seconds ahead of team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella.

Between the Renault pair it’s David Coulthard in the Red Bull. This was the Scot’s highest grid position since the 2006 Monaco Grand Prix.

Tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix should be quite tense as three drivers are tied on exactly the same championship points (Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton). The long run down to the first corner will be critical and the McLarens seem to be pretty good off the line this year. Alonso will be going for glory in front of his passionate crowd but can Massa stop him? What about Raikkonen, can he take his second victory for team? Or will we see the first Grand Prix win for Hamilton? Let the racing commence!

Spanish Grand Prix grid

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:21.421
2. ALONSO McLaren 1:21.451
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:21.723
4. HAMILTON McLaren 1:21.785
5. KUBICA BMW 1:22.253
6. TRULLI Toyota 1:22.324
7. HEIDFELD BMW 1:22.389
8. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:22.568
9. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:22.749
10. FISICHELLA Renault 1:22.881
11. ROSBERG Williams 1:21.968
12. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:22.097
13. SATO Super Aguri 1:22.115
14. BUTTON Honda 1:22.120
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:22.295
16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:22.508
17. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:22.666
18. WURZ Williams 1:22.769
19. WEBBER Red Bull 1:23.398
20. SUTIL Spyker 1:23.811
21. ALBERS Spyker 1:23.990
22. SPEED Toro Rosso No time

World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb clinched another victory in his Citroën C4 but the Rally Argentina will be remembered for its controversial start than its competitive World Rally Championship action.

The first day of the event was cancelled due to heavy overnight rain and it didn’t help that all the drivers and teams were so far away from the special stages to compete in… Nevertheless, the Frenchman took commanding control as soon as the real stages began and Loeb finished the event with a 36.7-second gap over rival Marcus Grönholm.

Loeb has extended the championship points lead by two, now with 48 to Grönholm’s 45. Early standings leader Mikko Hirvonen is now third with 36 points. Even with Citroën’s lead driver Loeb on top of the standings, Ford still maintains the edge in the Manufacturers’ title chase with 81 to Citroen’s 72 points after six rounds on the WRC calendar.

German racing driver Nick Heidfeld had the unique opportunity to drive the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife in a modern-spec Formula One racing car as part of a BMW Motorsport demonstration run.

Heidfeld drove last year’s BMW Sauber F1.06 chassis around the fantastic 20.8km race track (which also includes the new Grand Prix circuit) and despite slowing down for photographic purposes several times on each of his three laps, he set a time of eight minutes and 34 seconds. This lap time was not a real representation of what a modern F1 car can really do, as BMW ordered his driver to ease off at several parts of the track…

Apart from using the harder tyres (which offered low grip) and an increased ride height, the car was in full race specification.

“This drive was simply incredible,” said Heidfeld. “I thought it would be great to drive on the Nordschleife before I started out. But it was even better than I had expected.

“This racing track is the best in the world. I’d really like to have emptied the tank. It was a very special moment when I left the grand prix circuit in the direction of the Nordschleife.”

Heidfeld achieved a top speed of 275 km/h on the long Döttinger Höhe straight.

“I was really shaken up at the Bergwerk section and on the Döttinger Höhe,” he said.

“I’ll never forget today as long as I live. Another particularly special experience has now joined the many fantastic childhood memories and racing successes.”

BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen reiterated that the event had always been intended as a ‘tribute’ to the legendary track rather than an attempt to set a new lap record.

“We had implored him to be careful,” said Theissen.

“The day was a homage to the fans and to this unique circuit in the world of racing. For once, the lap times were a secondary consideration.”

Nevertheless, to see a modern Formula One racing car back on this amazing race track after 31 long years was a sight to behold.

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