An extremely rare Ferrari engine blow out saw Heikki Kovalainen take his maiden victory this afternoon at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Massa looked to have the race win in the bag in what had been, until his engine failed, a superb race from the Brazilian. His move off the start line was sublime as he came round the outside of the first corner after taking second from Kovalainen to claim first position from Hamilton in the McLaren.

From there on in it looked to be plain sailing for Massa, especially when Hamilton suffered a front-left puncture with 29 laps to go. But with only three laps between Ferrari and the chequered flag, Massa’s engine let go and came to halt in front of the Ferrari pit wall.

Once Massa had taken first from Hamilton he set off to try and get some decent space between himself and the challenging Brit. His lead was steadily maintained and by lap 15 he was 3.2s ahead, although Hamilton did get this margin down to an even 3 seconds.

Massa headed for the pits first but Hamilton was only one lap behind the Brazilian coming in for his own pit stop. McLaren then opted to fuel Hamilton for longer than Massa to increase Lewis’ chances of reclaiming the lead at the end of the next stint.

But the McLaren appeared to have no answer for the speed of the Ferrari and by the 40^th lap Massa was five seconds ahead at the front of the field. Then lap 41 saw Hamilton’s front-left tyre shred and with the sidewall shifting around a great deal Lewis managed to very slowly ease his damaged car back to the pits. The McLaren team choose to refuel Hamilton to the end of the race while he was having his tyre changed and he was sent back out to rejoin the race in 10^th place.

With Lewis very much out of contention Massa eased off the pace and settled in to get the race won. But, with only three laps remaining his engine went up in smoke halfway down the start/finish line.

It was Kovalainen who managed to pick up the spoils as he had been some distance behind the Ferrari in second place. An extremely unlucky Massa handed an extremely fortunate Kovalainen his maiden victory in Formula 1.

In turn, second place went to Timo Glock in the Toyota. The German went from being taken off track by ambulance two weeks previously in Germany to racing his way magnificently to the podium here in Hungary. Without the need for an aptly timed safety car Glock simply rode a tremendous race, leaving the mid-field pack behind him, in third position until Massa’s V8 gave way. With five laps to go he did a fantastic job of keeping Kimi Raikkonen firmly behind him for the remainder of the race. It was a richly deserved second place on the podium.

The Finn in the Ferrari may have ended up on the podium himself with third but it was by no means a great race for him. He lost his sixth starting position to Alonso in the opening lap. He only managed to overtake the Spaniard at the final pit stops.

The Renault of the former world champion came home in fourth with his team mate Piquet having another good race to come in behind Hamilton in sixth.

The unfortunate demise of the Ferrari engine means Massa claimed no points today enabling Hamilton to remain at the top of the driver’s championship table. Kimi Raikkonen also overtook his team mate in the standings to hold second place behind the Brit.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes