After a lack luster performance last week in Malaysia in which he was unable to mount an effective challenge to the McLarn of Louis Hamilton, Ferrai’s Felippe Massa recovered to dominate the third round of the World Championship in Bahrain on Sunday.

His dominant race win was underscored by taking both pole position and fastest race lap. Hamilton was once again a sensation, and although unable to catch Massa made history by being the first person to finish on the podium in his first three Grands Prix. In fact his second place was good enough to place him in a three way tie at the head of the championship points tabel with team-mate Fernando Alonso (who finished a disappointing fifth) and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (third).

BMW’s Nick Heidfeld drove another solid race with his fourth position underscoring that the BMW team is becoming a force to be reckoned with on the GP grid. Red Bull’s David Coulthard drove an impressive race coming from last place up to seventh before being sidelined with drive train problems. Several drivers fell by the wayside through attrition, the most sepcatuclar being Sato, whose Honda engine let go in clouds of billowing smoke on the front straight.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Massa (Ferrari)
2. Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
4. Heidfeld (BMW)
5. Alonso (McLaren)
6. Kubica (BMW)
7. Trulli (Toyota)
8. Fischella (Renualt)
9. Kovalanien (Renualt)
10. Rosberg (Williams)

The opening event of the 2007 ChampCar World Series in Las Vegas, was, in all honestly a farcical affair. With so many “firsts” something was bound to not work right and unfortunately is was the one thing that hadn’t been really tested – how well the new ChampCar would perform in a race. The strange thing is that it wasn’t the chassis that caused problems, but the refueling rigs for the cars. Some worked and some didn’t. As a result several drivers literally had dry pit stops and had to come back around for another go at getting fuel into the car. Paul Tracy and Bruno Junqueria were perhaps the two highest profile victims.

Others were expressing concern about the wear rate of the tires, yet all tire problems seemed to end up affecting just one car, that of three-time champion Sebastian Bourdais, who after three punctures ended his day parked at the side of the road after hitting a wall.

Other’s fell victim to spins (Dan Clarke), gearbox issues (Justin Wilson) and contact with the wall (Graham Rahl).

Through all this Team Australia’s Will Power drove a clean and mature race to score his first victory on what many have declared to be the best street circuit that ChampCar has yet raced on. Behind him five other cars were on the lead lap with only eight finishers overall.

The finishers were:

1. Will Power (Team Australia)
2. Robert Doornbos (Minardi Team USA)
3. Paul Tracy (Forsythe)
4. Alex Tagliani (RSPORTS)
5. Tristan Gommendy (PKV)
6. Katherine Legge (Dale Coyne)
7. Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne)
8. Alex Figge (Pacific Coast)

 Fernando Alonso proved that his is still a champion with a dominant victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend. The win was the first for McLaren since 2005 and the teams strength in depth was shown by another outstanding performance from his rookie team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Both McLarens out gunned and simply out drove the Ferrari’s of Raikkonen and Massa into the first corner.

Once in front Alonso disappeared into the distance while Hamilton provided a spirited defense against the two Ferraris. 

Raikkonen, struggling with an ailing engine all weekend, came home third while Massa finished sixth. The BMW of Nick Heidfeld proved that its performance in Australia wasn’t a light fuel assisted stunt as some had been suggesting, while his team mate Kubica suffered from a string of bad luck. The two Renault’s qualified mid-field, but managed to fight their way back into the points by the end of the race. Nico Rosberg drove an impressive race for Williams but it all proved for nothing when he was sidelined by a blown engine a few laps short of the finish.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Alonso (McLaren)
2. Hamilton (McLaren)
3. Raikkonen (Ferrari)
4. Heidfeld (BMW)
5. Massa (Ferrari)
6. Fisichella (Renault)
7. Trulli (Toyota)
8. Kovalainen (Renault)
9. Wurz (Williams)
10. Webber (Red Bull)

NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson took his third victory from six races at the tight Martinsville track yesterday. Johnson held off the visibly quicker car of team mate and car owner Jeff Gordon on the last lap to secure the win.

Pole sitter Denny Hamlin drove a strong race as did his team mate Tony Stewart, but neither were positioned for the win by the race conclusion. Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading when the race was stopped due to rain, but after the track dried he faded to a fifth place finish.

Overall the event proved to be another strong performance from the new NASCAR “Car of Tomorrow” and provided for close racing all around.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Jimmie Johnson 
2.  Jeff Gordon
3.  Denny Hamlin 
4.  Kyle Busch
5.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.
6.  Jeff Burton 
7.  Tony Stewart  
8.  Scott Riggs
9.  Jamie McMurray
10.  Matt Kenseth 

Wordl Champion Sebastian Loeb took his Citroen to his second straight victory and his second gravel surface victory over the weekend with a dominant perfomance on the Rally Portugal.

Initially it look like the rally may be a close fought event as by the end of the first morning the lead four cars were only seperated by 9 seconds.  But a poor choice by championship leader Marcus Gronholm allowed Loeb to open up a 40 second gap and from that point on the rally was his. The battle for third took longer to settle with Mikko Hirvonen coming in ahead of Petter Solberg.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1.  Loeb (Citroen)
2.  Gronholm (Ford)
3.  Hirvonen (Ford)
4.  P. Solberg  (Subaru)
5.  Sordo (Citroen)
6.  Latvala (Ford)
7.  Carlsson  (Citroen)
8.  Galli  (Citroen)
9.  H. Solberg  (Ford)
10.  Stohl  (Citroen)