Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen stretched his Formula One lead to nine points with a dominant win from pole position in the Spanish Grand Prix yesterday.

Brazilian Felipe Massa sealed Ferrari's second successive one-two finish, and third win in a row, with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton taking third place to revive his title challenge after a disappointing last race in Bahrain.

Raikkonen's 17th grand prix win left the Finn with 29 points, nine clear of closest rival Hamilton, and catapulted Ferrari back in front of BMW Sauber in the constructors' standings.

"If we wanted, we could have gone a bit faster but there was no point in pushing more than we need to," said Raikkonen, who still set the fastest lap.

Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who started on the front row for Renault, retired on lap 35 with a blown engine but he had already fallen down the field after being the first driver to refuel.

Massa, winner in Bahrain, had got past double world champion Alonso at the start while Hamilton slotted into fourth place after muscling past BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica from fifth.

"When we qualified fifth we knew it would be very difficult to beat the Ferraris," said Hamilton. "The key was to get a good start and make up as many places as possible.

"We had two bad races and to come back on the podium is fantastic."

While Raikkonen had an uneventful afternoon in the sunshine, his compatriot Heikki Kovalainen was flown to hospital with concussion after his McLaren plunged across the gravel and into a tyre wall.

Kovalainen had been leading at the time after both Ferraris and Hamilton had made their first pitstops.

Poland's Kubica finished fourth, moving him up to third in the championship with 19 points, ahead of Massa on 18, with Australian Mark Webber fifth in a Red Bull.

Britain's Jenson Button finished sixth for Honda's first points of the year while Japan's Kazuki Nakajima was seventh for Williams and Italian Jarno Trulli eighth for Toyota.

(Agencies via China Daily April 28, 2008)