Sakhir, Bahrain (My Sportsbook) - Brazilian Felipe Massa won Sunday's Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit rebounding from a less than superior effort last week in Malaysia. The No.5 Ferrari driver took the checkered flag 2.3 seconds ahead of rookie Lewis Hamilton.

The victory was Massa's first of the season and third of his Formula One career. It also made up for a fifth-place finish at Sepang in which he started on the pole but was out-driven early in the race.

Massa brought the 22-car field to the green flag to begin the third race of the Formula One season. Unlike last week in Malaysia, Massa held off both McLaren's into the first turn and led the first lap which saw the safety car deployed when Scott Speed, Adrian Sutil and Jenson Button collided send shards of bodywork everywhere.

The race went back to green on lap three and Hamilton immediately took a shot at Massa at the end of the front straight. He looked to the inside but backed off when he saw that he wasn't close enough to make a passing attempt.

The two Ferraris and two McLarens quickly pulled away from the rest of the field. Through six laps the gap from fourth to fifth-place Nick Heidfeld was 3.2 seconds and growing.

Massa set fastest lap on lap seven and eight to build his margin to almost a second on the rookie. Hamilton responded by setting new fastest laps on the next two laps as both he and Massa started to expand their lead on Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Nick Heidfeld bridged the gap to Alonso and Raikkonen making it a three-way battle for the final podium position.

Through 15 laps Massa still held one second on Hamilton, but his lead over two-time World Champion Alonso had ballooned to eight seconds. Hamilton was the first of the leaders to stop, on lap 19, and he took a lot of fuel indicating a long second stint.

Alonso and Massa were the next to stop leaving Raikkonen with the lead. After a quick lap Raikkonen brought his Ferrari in and the pit crew did a great job getting back on the track in front of Alonso.

Raikkonen now had Hamilton in his sights. The Finn was within three seconds of Hamilton after 28 of 57 laps. There appeared to be a good chance for a Ferrari one-two finish.

Alonso was still having his problems keeping pace and on lap 31 Heidfeld beat him around the outside of turn four for the position. Raikkonen was still chopping into Hamilton's lead, it was now under two seconds.

Meanwhile, through 35 laps, Massa had built his lead to over 10 seconds. He made his final pit stop with 17 laps to go and returned to the track with no problems.

The rest of the leaders made their stops and Massa was safely en route to a win. Only a mechanical problem or a huge mental error could prevent the Ferrari driver from taking his first win of 2007.

Both Ferrari and McLaren were on the harder tire for the final stint and it appeared that the McLarens were putting up better times.

But would it be enough for Hamilton to catch Massa?

The gap between Massa and Hamilton was six seconds with nine laps remaining. The rookie continued to chop into Massa's lead as the laps dwindled. With four laps to go it was only 3.9 seconds.

What a spectacular job from the youngster.

Hamilton got within 2.3 seconds, but he could never get close enough to Massa to make a passing attempt. Still, the second place and third consecutive podium finish for Hamilton is a history-making performance. No driver has ever started his career with three straight podium finishes.

Raikkonen, Heidfeld, Alonso, Robert Kubica, Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella completed the points-scoring positions.

There is a three-way tie in the drivers championship. Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton all have 22 points while Massa's win helped him leap to fourth overall with 17 points.

The next race in the championship is set for Sunday, May 13th in Barcelona, Spain.