THE RUNDOWN; FELIPE MASSA CLOSES ON LEWIS HAMILTON IN SPAIN.(News)

Byline: NIGEL ROEBUCK

Felipe Massa lost what would have been a dominant win in the Hungarian Grand Prix ("Twisted Fate, AW, Aug. 11) when his engine expired with three laps to go. So, when teammate Kimi Raikkonen's engine did the same in the late stages of the European GP in Valencia, Spain, all sorts of thoughts must have gone through Massa's mind. Yet his Ferrari ran faultlessly from flag to flag, and he took his fourth win of the season.

Six races remain in the 2008 campaign, and the world championship fight distills increasingly to a two-man battle between Massa and Lewis Hamilton, though the McLaren-Mercedes driver had nothing for Ferrari on this occasion. Instead, Hamilton finished second and held on to his points lead, now only six ahead of Massa.

Hamilton clearly could not quite match the Ferrari's pace, and Maranello now appears to have the upper hand in terms of pure speed. McLaren CEO Martin Whitmarsh said that significant aerodynamic updates are on the way for the next two racesat the ultraquick Spa and Monza circuitsand they will need to be good.

However, only one Ferrari appears to be a serious threat, for world champion Kimi Raikkonen had another lackluster weekend. He qualified only fourth after making mistakes when it mattered, dropped a place to McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen at the start and thereafter made little impression until his late-race retirement.

BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica drove beautifully once again, finishing where he qualified, third, but his team has lost ground to Ferrari and McLaren in the last few months. Kubica did well to finish ahead of Kovalainen but trailed Massa and Hamilton by almost 40 seconds.

Toyota had a very positive weekend, as Jarno Trulli finished fifth and Timo Glock was seventh, sandwiching the Scuderia Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel, who was one of the stars in qualifying. Nico Rosberg's Williams-Toyota, in eighth, took the final championship point.