Ferrari setting the season pace

| Tue, 04/08/2008 - 03:25

The Formula 1 circus heads back to Europe for the next three races with Ferrari already setting the pace for the season after only three races.

On Sunday Ferrari collected its 77th one-two at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Felipe Massa the winner and collecting his first points of the season, while reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen took the lead in the drivers' standing thanks to his second place.

This was the fifth time that the two drivers grabbed the top two positions and this put them second only to Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, who collected a record 24 one-two victories.

Sunday's triumph was a clear example of Ferrari's approach to the 2008 season: make an improvement with each race.

The season opener in Australia saw Ferrari collect only one point with Raikkonen, while in Malaysia the world champion won the race.

Massa blew his engine in the first race and spun out into the gravel in the second.

Looking back at the season so far, team principal Stefano Domenicali recalled: ''After the first race we looked as if we'd gone mad. But our strength lies in our calm and our teamwork''.

''And so we buckled down and focused on our twin objective: reliability and performance. That's why we want to bring something new to every race. Even if it's small it's important. The championship is wide open and Spain is only the fourth race in a very long season,'' he added.

During the three-week break between races, Ferrari will run four days of tests in Barcelona to tweak new solutions ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.

After repeating his success in Bahrain for the second year in a row, Massa will certainly be out to match his two wins in a row of last year: Bahrain and then Spain.

Sunday's victory erased any doubts about Massa's determination and the Brazilian intends to make it clear to fans that he just had a bad start to the season.

''I'm sorry I had such a bad beginning, but we still have a lot of races ahead of us. I'm confident we have a winning package and can be optimistic about the future,'' Massa said.

''We have two races ahead of us (Spain and Turkey) where Ferrari has always done well and where I won last year. I hope I can do this again,'' he added.

The third race in Europe is the Monaco Grand Prix, after which Formula 1 crosses the Atlantic for the Canadian Grand Prix.

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