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.

The Bahrain Grand Prix turned into yet another self-imposed defeat for Lewis Hamilton — as was amply prefigured in the qualifying sessions.

Hamilton increasing resembles the nursery rhyme character who, “When she was good, she was very, very good. When she was bad, she was horrid”.

In Bahrain, Lewis Hamilton was horrid. What’s more he knows it.

Starting third on the grid, he appeared glued to it as other cars drove around him. Then he crashed into old antagonist Fernando Alonso in the Renault, before finishing out of the points in a dismal 13th place. There were strong suspicions that Alonso had brake-tested him, but the McLaren driver would not be drawn on that.

Felipe Massa, overcoming a barrage of criticism on his abilities, led a Ferrari one-two.

But Hamilton is the story yet again. Asked how disappointed he was, he replied, “It was a disaster. I let the team down today. It went badly from the beginning. As a professional you start off badly and you need to pick up the pieces and deliver points. I didn’t do any of that for the team.

“I had a collision with Fernando which cost the whole race. I am always the first to blame myself. That’s the right way to go.”

BMW now leads the Constructors’ Championship, continuing a very unpredictable season. Maybe Hamilton needs a spell in Max Mosley’s torture chamber.

Barcelona is next and could be make-or-break for the English driver.

Lewis Hamilton crashed his McLaren into a tyre barrier at speed during today’s practice session for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Despite being shaken up he ended with the fourth-quickest time, almost 1.5 seconds down on Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Judging by these events, Massa looks to be the man to beat in the race proper. He has been criticized for not being able to handle the new rules on drivers’ aids in the cars.

His best lap time of one minute 31.240 seconds was said to be a whole second quicker than his pole position lap of a year ago.

World champion team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was almost a second down, with Heikki Kovalainen third in his McLaren, just edging Hamilton into fourth.

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica posted the fifth-best lap, followed by Nico Rosberg for Williams, David Coulthard in his Red Bull, the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais and the Renault of Nelson Piquet.

Jenson Button was 11th in his Honda, with Super Aguri’s Anthony Davidson bringing up the rear over four seconds down.

You make your own luck, it’s said. Hamilton seems to swing from extremely fortunate to desperately unlucky. Given his car is very reliable, he needs to stabilize his performance now if he’s to live up to last season’s sensational start to his career.

Kimi Raikkonen won the Malaysian Grand Prix in a Ferrari revival following the problems of the opening race in Melbourne.

For Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren, it was a return to the bad luck and avoidable mistakes that cost him the title at the end of last season.

Given a five place grid penalty for impeding Nick Heidfeld’s BMW in Qualifying, he was then the hapless victim of a pit-stop blunder by his team and ran out of water during the race.

In the end he finished fifth, probably the best he could hope for in the trying circumstances and the scorching heat of the race.

In the pits it was apparently a £1,000 titanium wheel nut that caused the problem. Hamilton found himself parked up for nearly 20 seconds during his first refuel, with his mechanics panicking over the front, right wheel.

When he finally got underway, he was in midfield and being held up by Mark Webber’s Red Bull. That was it until the next time.

“I didn’t have any water all race,” he said after confessing he could have done with a cold beer. “But the great thing is my fitness. Physically, I felt fine and was able to push all race. I feel better than last year.”

Felipe Massa started on pole and kept in front until the first round of pit stops. Then Raikkonen put in one super-fast lap to come out in front.

A Ferrari one-two looked assured, only for Massa to spin off on lap 31 when he clipped the kerb and lost control entering the next corner. Some commentators are wondering whether Massa can handle the car now that driver aids have been removed. Raikkonen proved he can, despite his poor performance in Melbourne which relegated him to eighth place.

“We’ve had a very complicated start to the season, but I have certainly not lost faith in the team. We can still do better,” said Raikkonen.

Hamilton still leads the Drivers’ Championship by three points. He said: “It was a difficult weekend. So so. Comme ci, comme ca. We can improve but I look forward to the next race still leading. We still got four points and that is key. I did the best job I could. At least the reliability of the car was great and we had good pace. We have to make sure we get the guns working next time and do a better job in qualifying. We can bounce back.”

He will be hoping that McLaren can recapture their mojo at Bahrain in two weeks.