Kimi Raikkonen duly won the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona after an emphatic weekend of driving.

His team-mate Felipe Massa in the other Ferrari made it a one-two.

Lewis Hamilton, out of sorts this season, showed both class and courage to rise from fifth on the grid to third place in a fractious race.

He avoided another clash with arch-rival Fernando Alonso by patiently waiting for him to make a pit-stop in his under-achieving Renault.

Full results are:
1, K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 1hr 38min 19.051sec; 2, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) 1:38:22.251; 3, L Hamilton (GB, McLaren Mercedes) 1:38:23.151; 4, R Kubica (Pol, BMW Sauber) 1:38:24.651; 5, M Webber (Aus, Red Bull Renault) 1:38:54.951; 6, J Button (GB, Honda) 1:39:12.051; 7, K Nakajima (Japan, Williams Toyota) 1:39:17.251; 8, J Trulli (It, Toyota) 1:39:18.451; 9, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber) 1:39:22.051; 10, G Fisichella (It, Force India Ferrari); 11, T Glock (Ger, Toyota); 12, D Coulthard(GB, Red Bull Renault); 13, T Sato (Japan, Super Aguri Honda) all one lap behind.

Championship positions
Drivers: 1, Raikkonen 29pts; 2, Hamilton 20; 3, Kubica 19; 4, Massa 18; 5, Heidfeld 16; 6, Kovalainen 14; 7, Trulli 9; 8, Webber 8; 9, Rosberg 7; 10, Alonso 6; 11, Nakajima 5; 12, Button 3; 13, Bourdais 2.

Constructors: 1, Ferrari 47pts; 2, BMW Sauber 35; 3, McLaren Mercedes 34; 4, Williams Toyota 12; 5, Toyota 9; 6, Red Bull Renault 8; 7, Renault 6; 8, Honda 3; 9, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari 2.

It’s still all to play for this season, with Hamilton quite capable of overtaking a nine points lead. But McLaren will have to start matching the Ferrari’s current pace and power.

Kimi Raikkonen stole pole position from Fernando Alonso in the final moments of the qualifying session for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona.

On the second row of the grid are Raikkonen’s team-mate Felipe Massa and the BMW Sauber of Robert Kubica.

Lewis Hamilton is fifth, a far cry from his glory days last season.

McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen is in sixth, while the Red Bull of Mark Webber is in seventh with Jarno Trulli eighth in a Toyota.

Following its disastrous Formula One season last year, in which it was fined a staggering £50m for allegedly possessing technical secrets belonging to Ferrari, McLaren has now posted a loss of £2.3m for 2006. This is down from £14.3m profit the year bafore.

The McLaren Group is is part-owned by Mercedes, with a 40pc stake, and Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, Mumtalakat, with £30pc. Ron Dennis owns part of the rest with the Saudi-run TAG Group.

The Group was hit on all fronts. Sales of its £300,000 flagship car, the SLR, produced with Mercedes, fell from 649 in 2005 to 261 in 2006.

The ban on tobacco advertising in F1 reduced its turnover to £206.6m, and Lewis Hamilton’s failure to secure the world title meant further losses. Without the rookie’s efforts though, Fernando Alonso may well have won the title for the team.

Even a great performance by Lewis counted against them in 2007. Truly the stars were not on their side. They will be praying for better fortune this year.

Leading the charge of a bright crop of twenty-something Formula One drivers, Lewis Hamilton named Nico Rosberg as a possible team-mate next season, replacing Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

However, Rosberg insists he is happy at Williams, where his father Keke won the 1982 World Title. “I’m not going anywhere, at least for another season, and hopefully for longer than that,” he said.

“What Lewis achieved last season has got all us younger drivers thinking. If he can do it, then so can we. It’s a big positive for me. I certainly compare to him. In karting we beat each other all the time and I know I can compete with Lewis.One year he finished up as European champion with me as his team-mate in second and Robert Kubica third. And we all know that Heikki Kovalainen is a top driver, too.

“Of course, it looks like Lewis has a better car than the rest of us at the moment. Next season will still see the McLarens and Ferraris dominate, but I’m hoping the rest of the next tier of teams can push them harder, and that Williams can compete consistently with BMWSauber. We should have beaten Renault in the constructors’ championship last season, so our plan in 2008 is to be up there challenging for third place.

“I’m really excited because I believe F1 will come to be dominated by my generation very soon. I was the first of us to arrive in the sport, and Lewis is now ahead of the rest of us, but I believe there will be a great rivalry in the next few years involving Lewis, myself, Robert and Heikki, with maybe Sebastian Vettel, too, joining us because he did really well when he started racing midway through last season.

“The sport needs these sort of rivalries and I hope people will come to talk of us one day like they used to talk about the great rivalries involving Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet.”

The new season promises to be one characterized by new talent coming through, although Hamilton must be favourite to take the title this time.