It's game on at the front

Massa had a supreme start from third on the grid and burst past both Kovalainen and Hamilton at the first corner. His move on Hamilton was surprisingly aggressive and James Allen even called it "Hamiltonesque".

To some extent he is right — and it put to bed some of the questions raised by Lewis' pass on Felipe two weeks ago in Germany.

However, if you analyse the data, one conclusion you won't draw is that the McLaren was faster than the Ferrari. Massa was a couple of tenths faster, on average and established a comfortable gap over his rival. At no point in the race was Hamilton reeling the Ferrari in. Perhaps Lewis had something left in the tank at the time of his puncture; perhaps the soaring track temperatures benefited Ferrari; perhaps Ferrari really have tuned up Massa's engine to its ultimate detriment.

Who knows, but Massa was as quick if not quicker than the McLaren all race.

Massa vs Raikkonen

We almost witnessed a fundamental shift in the balance of power at Ferrari. Had Massa brought the car home in first and established a World Championship lead, the Scuderia would have started to lean towards backing the diminutive Brazilian for the Drivers' Championship.

The engine blow up now puts Kimi in Lewis' mirrors and leaves Massa with a lot of work to do.

Valencia is a crucial race for both Ferrari drivers. If Raikkonen pulls out a points gap on Massa then the Brazilian will start to play more a supporting role in Kimi's bid for a second Championship.

There are still serious question marks over Kimi. He came good on the super-soft with another fastest lap of the race but he qualified in sixth and looked slow all weekend. The one surprise was the amount of fuel he had on board — some seven laps more than Massa.

Kovalainen vs Hamilton

Although Hamilton was out-muscled by Massa going into the first corner, the Briton once more demonstrated his superiority over his Finnish team mate.

At the time of his puncture Hamilton was 25 seconds ahead of Kovalainen — a huge gap given that the Finn was racing in clean air for most of the race.

Kovalainen was a lucky boy this weekend and serious question marks remain over his ability to compete with Hamilton.

BMW and Toyota

Is this the weekend when the balance of power has shifted away from BMW? Although Kubica achieved a creditable fourth on the grid, he pitted early and lost a lot of places in the first round of stops.

Meanwhile, Timo Glock, who started fifth, went further into the race than anyone expected and brought the car home in second (a completely different second to the one Nelson Piquet scored in Germany).

Toyota has made a significant step forward this race. The team has never been this competitive this far into the season. Given the demise of Red Bull in the last couple of races there is a great chance for the Japanese team to seize fourth place in the Constructors' Championship.