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Local hero Fernando Alonso could only finish third after tangling with Massa at the start of the race, while Lewis Hamilton now takes the championship lead thanks to his third consecutive second place finish.

The British rookie is yet to win a race this season, but thanks to Formula One's scoring system, he is two points ahead of teammate Alonso after four races.

Massa, winner of two races this year, is three points behind Hamilton, with Kimi Raikkonen, who retired from today's race, eight points adrift.

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Alonso tried to go around the outside of Massa at the first corner, but banged wheels with the Ferrari as he did so, sending the McLaren across the gravel and allowing Hamilton and Raikkonen to sweep past.

Massa proceeded to command the rest of the race, although he had a scare at his first pitstop when a small fuel spillage caused a dramatic fire on the side of his Ferrari as he pulled away.

But the damage was only superficial, and the Brazilian was able to resume his dominant progress towards another win, extending his advantage to nearly 20 seconds before backing off in the closing stages.

A longer first stint made little difference for Hamilton, who could not challenge Massa but was never threatened for second.

Alonso made a spirited early attempt to pass Raikkonen on the outside at Turn 10, and then benefited when the Finn suffered a rare Ferrari failure and parked with electrical problems after just 10 laps.

But Alonso did not have the pace to catch the leaders, instead falling as much as half a minute behind after struggling with the harder tyres during a long middle stint.

Robert Kubica took fourth after his best race of the year, having got within two seconds of Alonso in the middle of the race.

The Pole's BMW teammate Nick Heidfeld briefly led thanks to a long first stint, but dropped out of contention with a disastrous pitstop, in which he was waved out before his right front wheel was properly attached.

Heidfeld nursed the car back around to the pits so that the problem could be rectified, and then made progress through the backmarkers before retiring.

David Coulthard held on to fifth despite a late gearbox problem that saw Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen charge onto the hobbled Red Bull's tail.

Both Renaults had been affected by a fuel rig glitch that forced them to make three stops. This left Giancarlo Fisichella only ninth behind Takuma Sato, as Super Aguri celebrated their first ever points finish.

Fisichella had lost ground by running wide on the first lap, leading to an incident in the pack behind in which Alex Wurz ran into the back of Ralf Schumacher. The Toyota rejoined after repairs but later retired, as had teammate Jarno Trulli, who had stalled on the grid and had to start last.