Ferrari's Felipe Massa jump-started his struggling Formula One campaign Sunday by winning the Bahrain Grand Prix for his first victory of the season.
Massa moved ahead of pole-sitter Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber at the start and then held off teammate and new overall leader Kimi Raikkonen to win by 3.339 seconds.
Kubica, who was second at the Malaysian GP two weeks ago, finished third ahead of teammate Nick Heidfeld as BMW Sauber filled out the second row.
McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen finished where he started in fifth while teammate Lewis Hamilton was 13th after a poor start from fourth on the grid.
Massa's sixth career win put him into the championship hunt with 10 points.
“It was a sensational day,'' Massa said. “We had a good start. The race was pretty difficult because I didn't want to make any mistakes so I didn't push the car hard, I just wanted to bring it home.''
World champion Raikkonen, who collected his 50th podium, leads with 19 points, three more than Heidfeld. Hamilton, Kovalainen and Kubica all have 14 points.
Toyota's Jarno Trulli, Mark Weber of Red Bull and Nico Rosberg of Williams filled out the top eight to collect the remaining points. Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was ninth.
