Again, Massa showed his great driving skills by winning this year’s European Grand Prix right here at Valencia. There are several incidents in this race, from Alonso and Raikkonen’s misfortunate to a pit crew getting hurt for slight error in communication. F1Zoom.com brings you to full race report right here.

While almost everyone is expecting payback from Hamilton for Massa’s great Hungarian start, the Brazilian managed to secure his position through the first turn while Hamilton was forced to defend his from Kubica. The start was controversial already, since Kovalainen managed to overtake Raikkonen on the second turn. Due to heavy heat of competition and probably pushing too hard, Kazuki Nakajima initiated an incident by hitting Alonso’s rear wing off, damaging the front wing of his Williams’ front wing while doing so. Nakajima managed to pit and return to track, but Alonso’s rear wing damage was harder to repair and he is forced to retire, leaving his home crowd disappointed.
The race goes on, as Massa leads with Hamilton trying hard to keep up in 2nd. Massa has secured a 2.1 seconds gap from Hamilton, and he was keeping his pace nicely. Kubica is still third, having trouble with his front wing. Despite his pit crew stating they are ready for him, Kubica decided to stay in the race and change his front wing later on in his scheduled pit stop. Kovalainen is fourth, looking steady and promising. In lap 7, both Coulthard and Fisichella spin after colliding. It was not clear who did wrong, but the race commentators were laughing at them. These two are the oldest, most experienced, drivers in Formula 1 these days and such incident should never happened. Coulthard also sun before when Nakajima hit Alonso, but he managed to recover quickly and return to race.

Massa was dominating this race completely. He lost his position only after his first and second pit stop, regaining it back as soon as Hamilton pit in. No great maneuvers, no overtaking dramas, just plain and simple race. Several incidents happened though, such as Webbers’ late braking in pit stop, causing his pit crew stumbled back a few steps. Massa’s second pit stop was also nearly disastrous when he nearly hit Adrian Sutil coming out of the pit lane at the same time. They were side by side on that narrow pit lane before Sutil backed down after seeing the blue flag. Massa maintains his position and managed to avoid another disaster, but Sutil was forced to retire later on after hitting his Force India to track fence.

The biggest incident of all happened when Raikkonen was given the signal to go while the gasoline hose was still stuck. One of the pit crew got his hand stuck on the rear wheel, causing him to drag and fall in a painful way. Raikkonen stopped for a second there to see if his crew OK, but he return to race and yet retire on lap 46 for engine failure. What a real disappointment for Kimi Raikkonen.
Massa won the race, followed by Hamilton and Kubica in 2nd and 3rd place. It was a great weekend, Valencia, and I will see you again next time in Belgian Grand Prix two weeks from now. Until next time!
European Grand Prix Results:
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1h35:32.339
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 5.611
3. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 37.353
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 39.703
5. Trulli Toyota (B) + 50.684
6. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 52.625
7. Glock Toyota (B) + 1:07.990
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:11.457
9. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 1:22.177
10. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1:29.794
11. Piquet Renault (B) + 1:32.717
12. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap
13. Button Honda (B) + 1 lap
14. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
15. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) + 1 lap
16. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1 lap
17. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1 lap

Not classified/retirements:
Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 46
Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 42
Alonso Renault (B) 1

Again, another intriguing twist at Valencia Grand Prix as Robert Kubica became the fastest at Free Practice 3 while Ferrari and McLaren showed rather disappointing results. Nico Rosberg (Williams) managed to booked second fastest lap time, while Sebastien Bourdais (STR) again surprised everyone by scoring the third fastest lap time. These results really made predicting Valencia Grand Prix even harder to do, since there are no dominant drivers in either free practice sessions. Williams showed their true strength in this session I guess, since Kazuki Nakajima also booked a nice lap time placing him in fourth place just in front of Felipe Massa.

Lewis Hamilton again showed a rather disappointing result. His lap time only get him in sixth place, and by the end of this session he lost his focus and spin his car out of the track before returning to paddock. He placed a complaint on several slowing drivers that influenced his lap time. I’m really curious to see how the qualifying session will turn out, since no team showed a dominant (or maybe steady) performance. It will be possible to see teams like Williams and STR at the front of our starting grid, and it will be nice to see that really happens.

Racing on a new circuit will always be fascinating. Here, we will be able to see how well drivers could perform and how good their team really is in providing the best car for them. With the results of previous Hungarian Grand Prix, Valencia will host one of the most interesting races in this year’s series. Ferrari is having serious reliability problems, and having to compete in a completely new track will be a great challenge for their mechanics. McLaren is doing great, but let us not forget how tire became a problem for Hamilton and how in fact they are slightly out paced by Ferrari’s engine. The BMW and Toyota both shows a great potential, with Honda catching up real quick, and we will definitely see great battle between them.

Valencia’s new street circuit will be a great urban circuit with a lot of twists and turns, plus a totally amazing view and scenery. Valencia’s lap distance will be 5.419km/3.367 miles, which means it will be a 57 Laps race with the total of 308.883 Km (equals to 191.919 miles). The track’s character surely makes it hard to overtake, so we will definitely see a great start and exciting pit battles. We’ll see.