MONTREAL (Reuters) - Poland's Robert Kubica took his and BMW Sauber's first grand prix victory in Canada on Sunday to wrest the Formula One championship lead from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton on a miserable afternoon for the Briton.

Hamilton, who enjoyed his breakthrough win on the same course last year, inexplicably drove into the back of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in a pit-lane collision that put the top two drivers out of the race.

In their absence, Kubica seized his chance.

He took the lead on lap 43 when Toyota's Timo Glock pitted and took the chequered flag ahead of German team mate Nick Heidfeld in a momentous one-two finish for the Swiss-based team.

"Fantastic race, fantastic for the team, for me and for my country and for the fans who I thank for cheering for me here in Canada," said Kubica after the Polish anthem had been played for the first time at a Formula One race.

The win capped an amazing turnaround for the 23-year-old Kubica, the first Pole to race in Formula One, after surviving a horrific crash in last year's race on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Scot David Coulthard, the oldest driver in the race at 37, rolled back the years to finish third for Red Bull ahead of Glock with Ferrari's Felipe Massa fifth.

"I would never have expected a podium this weekend - I've had a horrible start to the year," commented Coulthard after scoring his first points of the season.

Kubica has 42 points with Hamilton and Massa both on 38 after seven races.

HAMILTON APOLOGY

While Kubica enjoyed the champagne moment, the race will be remembered as much for the pit lane pile-up which left Hamilton apologising to his closest rival.

With the safety car deployed, Raikkonen had stopped at the red light at the end of the pit lane on lap 20 with Kubica also waiting alongside. Hamilton then rammed into the back of the Finn's car.

Williams' Nico Rosberg shunted the rear of Hamilton's McLaren but the German was able to continue the race after stopping for a new front wing.

"It's not exactly a racing incident as such but I think it's really unfortunate. It was one of those things I guess," said Hamilton, who had gone into the race with a three point lead over Raikkonen.

After claiming pole position on Saturday, the Briton was hot favourite to repeat last year's victory and was leading comfortably before the safety car came out on the 18th lap.

"It's a lot different if you crash into the wall and you are angry with yourself. It's not like that. I apologise to Kimi if I've ruined his race but that sort of thing happens," said Hamilton.

"I would just rather that neither of us was out," he added. "We were so quick, I was breezing it. But next time."

Heidfeld led before a list of drivers, including Honda's Rubens Barrichello, Coulthard and Toyota's Jarno Trulli, to lead before their pit stops.

Trulli finished sixth, with Brazilian Rubens Barrichello seventh for Honda and Germany's Sebastian Vettel taking the final point for Toro Rosso.

Eurosport - Sun, 25 May 16:44:00 2008

Britain's Lewis Hamilton battled to a masterful Monaco Grand Prix victory despite hitting the barriers on an afternoon of mayhem in the rain.
Hamilton reignited the scrap for this year's drivers' world championship with a memorable drive for McLaren in a race of treacherous wet and dry conditions.

For the 23-year-old Englishman his first win on the famous Mediterranean street circuit was a dream result in his favourite race.

Hamilton came home three seconds clear of his friend Pole Robert Kubica in a BMW Sauber with Brazilian Felipe Massa third for Ferrari after starting from pole position.

This was the Briton's second win of the season and the sixth of his career.

Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull was fourth.

Ferrari's defending drivers world champion Kimi Raikkonen of Finland endured a wild race of accidents and incidents and finished ninth, failing to score a point.

This all left Hamilton on top of the title race again for the first time since the season opening race in Australia.

He has 38 points now with Raikkonen on 35 second and Massa third on 34.

Hamilton made a dazzling start and found a way past Raikkonen going into the first corner Ste Devote on the inside to take second behind Massa.

As rain began to fall steadily, and with Hamilton's teammate Heikki Kovalainen starting from the back of the grid following a pre-race stall, the contest turned into a circus of chaos.

There were incidents and accidents with double world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso involved twice in collisions and Hamilton himself smashing into the barriers on lap six at Tabac.

His rear right tyre was left hanging as he returned to the pits.

David Coulthard had climbed from 15th to the top ten by now but the rain played havoc with the race for several minutes as Alonso, followed by Coulthard and Sebastian Bourdais crashed off into the barriers at Massenet.

Then Raikkonen was given a 'drive-through' penalty because Ferrari had failed to fit his car's tyres properly more than three minutes before the start of the race.

After he had performed his punishment, the running order at the top was Massa followed by Kubica and then Hamilton who had pitted and recovered.

On lap 16, as the field grappled with the wet slippery conditions, Massa spun off and recovered his car at Ste Devote, gifting Kubica the lead in his BMW-Sauber.

The Pole stayed there until he had to pit and that put Massa back in front until he pitted after 32 laps.

Hamilton then took over and opened up a commanding advantage.

He was 16.2 seconds ahead after 38 laps and 25 seconds ahead of the Brazilian by lap 44.

As the track dried out the field settled down with Hamilton inspired by leading. He was 36.7 seconds clear of Massa by lap 52 with the Ferrari driver in turn just half a second ahead of Kubica in third.

Amazingly, the German driver Adrian Sutil, who revels in the special conditions of Monaco, was fourth for Force India at this stage.

It was clear Hamilton was in command providing the weather did not intervene again and his lead was so luxurious he could pit after 53 laps and stay out in front when Massa followed suit three laps later.

Massa's second stop also cost him a position as he was passed 'in the pits' by Kubica.

With 17 laps remaining, Nico Rosberg caused the second Safety Car intervention when he lost control in the swimming pool complex and wrecked his car in a massive accident.

By now, following their pit-stops, the leading drivers have switched from their wet weather tyres to dry tyres and the track had dried considerably - and the Safety Car break meant, also, that Hamilton's big lead was cut back.

When racing resumed, Hamilton raced clear but on lap 68 Raikkonen made a major mistake and lost control of his car as he came out of the tunnel and ran into the back of Sutil.

Both drivers had to pit for repairs, but it was costly for the German as he was forced to retire while the champion rejoined in ninth place.

German Sebastian Vettel picked up points in fifth for Toro Rosso and Brazilian Rubens Barrichello came in sixth for Honda.

Japanese Kazuki Nakajima was seventh for Williams and Kovalainen eighth in the second McLaren after starting from the pit lane.

BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) - Reigning champion Kimi Raikkonen led the Spanish Grand Prix in his Ferrari on Sunday at the halfway stage which also saw compatriot Heikki Kovalainen exit in a spectacular crash.

Raikkonen was leading on lap 33 of 66 ahead of stablemate Felipe Massa while British pilot Lewis Hamilton - team-mate of Kovalainen - was in third and the 132,000 mainly Spanish crowd's hopes of a home victory ended with 32 laps remaining as two-time champion Fernando Alonso had to pull out when in fifth place.

Kovalainen was the most spectacular of the casualties as something appeared to come off his McLaren and he drove straight onto the gravel and into the protective tyre barrier.
The safety cart came out but more worryingly the medical car also came onto the track to attend to the Finnish driver.

Thankfully Kovalainen, who is in his first season at this level, was seen being stretchered away but was able to give a thumbs up sign to register that he was alright.
McLaren said that he was conscious and stable.

The first lap was marred when German driver Sebastien Vettel in his Torro Rosso exited with his third collision of the season - which also involved David Coulthard and Adrian Suttil - leaving him still to complete a Grand Prix on four outings.

Nelson Piquet Junior, son of the former world champion, was moving smoothly in 10th when he made an error and went off but managed to regain the circuit having lost several places.
Piquet Junior never recovered from that error and stopped after just five laps of the race having baulked French driver Sebastien Bourdais, who had to come into the pits for serious repairs and also had to eventually call it a day.

Eurosport - Sat, 12 Apr 19:05:00 2008
Fernando Alonso> has claimed that he did not leave McLaren-Mercedes at the end of the 2007 campaign because of his public fall-outs with both team-mate Lewis Hamilton and team principal Ron Dennis, but rather because he deemed the highly successful British outfit to be 'not a winning team'.

The Spaniard cut short his three-year McLaren contract to return to Renault - with whom he claimed both his world drivers' championship successes in 2005 and 2006 - and even if his current R28 mount has proven to be a distinct disappointment in terms of its pace and potential, he argued he believed there was more chance of winning with the Régie in the years to come than had he stayed at Woking.

"McLaren seem like a winning team, but they are not," he is quoted as having said by Dutch website f1today.nl. "Some teams are able to produce good cars [and] seem like winners, but in fact they are not, like McLaren.

"They haven't won any titles in years, so I would rather be with Renault, who in the same period collected two drivers' and two constructors' championships."

Whilst there have been a good many rumours linking the 26-year-old to a switch across to Ferrari in 2009, Alonso also stressed that Renault was the right place to be for him at the moment - though he would only remain there beyond the end of the current season, he added, should he be given a winning car next year.

"I could have gone to a couple of other teams," he acknowledged, "but ultimately Renault seemed like the right ones, with the experience, to make a good car and win races.

"Next year I want to be with a team that can win. At the moment I think it will be Renault, because by the end of the season we will have made up a lot of our deficiencies and then we can make a small further step for next season."

MANAMA (Reuters) - Brazilian Felipe Massa led Ferrari to a one-two victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, with team mate Kimi Raikkonen seizing the championship lead from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton.

Massa's sixth career win brought him his first points of the Formula One season and came at the same Sakhir desert circuit where he fired up his title challenge last year with a pole-to-flag victory.

"Finally, after a start to the championship under dark clouds, I can see the sunshine again," he said.

World champion Raikkonen collected the 50th podium finish of his grand prix career and the Finn took over at the top with 19 points, three clear of BMW Sauber's German Nick Heidfeld, after three races.

Hamilton was 13th, the lowest placing of his career, and lapped by the Ferraris after making a rare mistake at the start and then running into the back of former team mate Fernando Alonso's Renault.

That second lap collision, passed off as a racing incident, forced the Briton to pit for a new front wing and left him struggling in 17th place with a damaged car.

"It was a very poor performance. I sort of let the team down today," said the downcast Briton, now level with team mate Heikki Kovalainen and Poland's Robert Kubica on 14 points.

"As a professional when you start off badly, you need to pick the pieces up and at least deliver some points, but I didn't do any of that for the team.

BMW TOP

McLaren were leapfrogged at the top of the constructors' standings by BMW Sauber, the only team to have finished all three races on the podium.

Kubica came third, after becoming the first BMW Sauber driver to start a grand prix from pole position, with Heidfeld a close fourth. BMW Sauber have 30 points to Ferrari's 29 and McLaren's 28.

Kovalainen was fifth, ahead of Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli and Australian Mark Webber in a Red Bull. Germany's Nico Rosberg took the final point for Williams.

Massa made a faster getaway from the front row than Kubica while Hamilton was engulfed by the field, and took the chequered flag 3.3 seconds ahead of Raikkonen.

"The race was really difficult at the beginning, there was a lot of oil on the track," said the Brazilian. "Then during the race the car was just very good and I didn't push to the limit.

"I had a not very easy few weeks, but that's life," he added in a reference to the pressure on him after retiring in Australia and Malaysia.

"It's not the first time and it won't be the last. I had a two bad days in the first two races but I always knew that we were quick."

"I wanted to win but we've been a bit off the pace all weekend," said Raikkonen. "But I'm leading the championship so if we can score second places on the bad weekends, I'm not too disappointed.

"Kubica said he had been hampered by wheelspin at the start and then struggled with the oil on the track, with Raikkonen barging past on lap two.

"It's very good to be on the podium for the second race in a row but without the problems on the second lap, I might have been able to fight with Kimi," said the Pole.

In a relatively incident-free race, Britons Jenson Button and David Coulthard collided on lap 18 while Germany's Sebastian Vettel was shunted out at the start.

Sat 15 Mar, 05:09 AM
Lewis Hamilton got his bid for the Formula One world championship off to the perfect start after taking pole position for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver's time of one minute 26.714 seconds was good enough to edge out Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber by 0.155secs, with team-mate Heikki Kovalainen third.

But defending champion Kimi Raikkonen will start way down the field after his Ferrari came to a halt in the pit lane during Qualifying One, while team-mate Felipe Massa could only manage fourth to complete an underwhelming start for the Italian outfit.

Hamilton hit the front midway through Qualifying Three, setting a time of 1min 27.092secs, with Massa well-placed in second and Kovalainen third, albeit half a second adrift.

As the session expired, Kubica was the first to lay down the gauntlet, recording a lap of 1:26.869 although he lost vital fractions after running wide at turn 12.

And it proved crucial as Hamilton bettered the Pole's mark with a tidy effort to ensure he will start the 58-lap showdown from the best possible position.

But disaster struck for Raikkonen as, after setting a time in Qualifying One, his Ferrari crawled back to the pits before stopping in the pitlane and the Finn was pushed back to the garage, meaning his participation was forced to come to a premature end.

The defending world champion will now start from 16th on the grid.

Kovalainen will line-up behind his McLaren team-mate after his effort of 1:27.079 was good enough for third, just under one one hundredth of a second quicker than Massa, who decided against trying to improve his earlier time after diving into the pits.

Nick Heidfeld starts fifth in the second BMW, while Jarno Trulli piloted his Toyota to an impressive sixth place.

Nico Rosberg claimed seventh for Williams and David Coulthard grabbed an impressive eight for Red Bull.

Timo Glock was ninth in the other Toyota, while Sebastian Vettel ended an impressive 10th for Toro Rosso.

Hamilton also led the way in Qualifying Two, which was briefly halted after Mark Webber, whose Red Bull had looked impressive during free practice, ended up in the gravel at Turn Six after suffering an apparent mechanical problem.

Kubica was second and Kovalainen third but Honda's Jenson Button missed out on a place in Q3 and will start 13th, one place behind Fernando Alonso's Renault, who was also eliminated along with Button's team-mate Barrichello and Kazuki Nakajima in the Williams.

Kovalainen had set the pace in Q1 and Button left it late to make it through but, as expected, Anthony Davidson was eliminated after his Super Aguri finished last.

Debutants Nelsinho Piquet in the Renault and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais also failed to qualify for the next session, as did Takuma Sato in the other Super Aguri and Force India duo of Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, who spun on his final attempt.

Despite giving himself the ideal start for tomorrow's race, Hamilton admitted there is still room for improvement.

"I could do better," he said.

"Being on pole is a great feeling but you can always do better. Finding gaps is tricky, but I'm happy with the result.

"Q1 was very, very close. I didn't get a good lap but in the last session, I was able to string it out and put the sectors together."

Kubica, meanwhile, hailed his second and team-mate Heidfeld's fifth place on the grid as a "great achievement" for BMW.

"I made a mistake in turn 12 and we took quite a lot of risk but it didn't pay off," he said.
"But it's a great achievement by the team.

Kovalainen was also satisfied with third.

"It was fairly smooth, I was just trying to take things steady, not make any mistakes and push a bit more," he said.