The European Grand Prix on a new street circuit in Valencia, Spain, turned out to be an eventful one for the famous red cars of Ferrari. Felipe Massa, who capitalised on his pole position, had to survive a post-race inquiry into his "unsafe pit release" before his victory was confirmed, while Kimi Raikkonen suffered the embarrassment of running over one of his pit crew after a fuel pipe mix-up before retiring shortly afterwards with engine failure. The three incidents brought gasps from officials of Mubadala, Ferrari's Abu Dhabi sponsors, and media representatives in the simulated press room at the Emirates Palace hotel which provided split-second information on a special screen throughout the race as well as technical and factual updates which are now part of the service at grand prix meetings around the world. Lewis Hamilton, who now leads Massa by six points and Raikkonen by 13 points, admitted after his second place that a neck injury almost forced him not to start. The McLaren driver had to have injections in his neck and said: "Luckily I have a great doctor and a great team or I might not have made it," said the Englishman, who added: "As it was, it was pretty tough in the race and I had a lot of pain, but I don't think I lost time because of it." @email:wjohnson@thenational.ae
Initial analysis of Raikkonen's engine confirmed a broken con rod, the cause of Massa's retirement at the Hungaroring, but further checks were being carried out at the team's Maranello factory. "The engineers were aware of a potential risk in general terms with the 056 engine fitted to Kimi's car, which was on its second race, given that the con rods were part of the same batch used on Felipe's engine," Ferrari said.
"Changing the engine on Kimi's car would have seen the Finn start from far down the grid at a track where it appeared that overtaking was impossible, proving it's not enough to bring Formula One to a street circuit in a fantastic location to produce spectacular racing." Raikkonen had been second in the championship, five points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, before the race at Valencia's new street circuit.
The retirement dropped the Finn to third place overall, 13 adrift of the Briton with six races remaining. *Reuters
