Valencia Spain this is the first time that this autonomous province of Spain played host to Formula 1. This makes Valencia the second of the three street circuits in this Formula 1 calendar and spectators were enthralled with the speedy action in the coastal town. Massa made up for his sad retirement in the Hungarian GP, by leading from start to finish and also clocking the fastest lap. Fernando Alonso disappoint¬ed his fans and was forced into retirement (again), after completing just one lap, with a damaged rear thanks to the Williams of Nakajima.

By lap 35, after the first round of pit stops, Massa was clearly in the lead, with a ten second advantage over second placed Hamilton. The drama began to unfold on lap 37 with the Brazilian's second pit stop. After refuelling and putting on a set of fresh super softs the Ferrari team released him straight into the path of Adrian Sutil. Although Massa backed off to let Sutil pass, this move was regarded as 'dangerous' by the stewards and the duo were fined euro 10,000. The bad luck for the Italian team did not end there. They did the unexpected and goofed up a pit stop.


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Raikkonen was released too early, pulling the fuel hose and the mechanic with him. The mechanic was hit by the rear wheel but fortunately only suffered a minor fracture. Just when everyone thought the worst was over, the world champion's Ferrari engine gave up on lap 46, ending his race in a puff of smoke. Engine failure had hit the team for the second race running, hinting at reliability issues with the Italian racing team. Ferrari have confirmed that a broken connecting-rod was the cause behind the failures on both occasions.