Hamilton in a hurry to escape his nightmare

Nothing he achieved during the preceding 57 laps was as slick or quick. He was glued on to the grid at the start, pranged his McLaren in a collision with former team-mate Fernando Alonso, finished 13th and surrendered his championship lead.

Felipe Massa powers his way to a second successive Bahrain Grand Prix victory

A weekend that started with a crash on Friday ended in self recrimination.

Just how disappointed was he? "As much as possible, I suppose," he said with a grimace after a Felipe Massa-led Ferrari one-two.

"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 the collision with Fernando which cost the whole race. I am always the first to blame it on myself. That's the right way to go."

Starting third, he was immediately leapfrogged by Heikki Kovalainen in the other McLaren, admitting his error in failing to engage 'launch mode'. He was straight down to 10th place.

That put him behind Alonso's Renault. Would his former teammate and nemesis play dirty? The sparks soon started flying, with Hamilton clipping the Spaniard on the first lap. Then, moments later, he ploughed into the back of him along the straight, destroying his front wing.

The suspicion was that Alonso had brake-tested him. Hamilton had the decency not to join the conspiracy theory, with Renault's telemetry proving their man had, in fact, not lifted his foot off the gas. 'It's racing,' said Hamilton.

However, when he emerged from the pits as the lowest placed of the four British drivers in 18th, he lost his composure, waving his fist at Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) and Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India) on his way through. The ignominy continued. He re-entered the fray after his second pit stop sandwiched behind the Ferraris, inviting a blue flag signalling that he must make way for Kimi Raikkonen lapping him.

Thirteenth place put him back to third in the drivers' standings behind Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld, whose lofty perch underlines BMW's claim to the status of serious title contenders. Robert Kubica was third, propelling the German car makers to the head of the constructors' championship.

That is just one headache for Hamilton. His team-mate has outscored him twice in succession, though misfortune played a part in Malaysia two weeks ago, and suddenly he is beset by the unknown.

Are we seeing second-season syndrome? Can he handle the expectation? Or was this simply a one-off blip? Whichever, McLaren must find a solution to Ferrari's superiority before the circus moves to Barcelona.

Hamilton was positive about the future. "It's not a huge concern for me, to be honest," he said. "I know I have the pace and I know in the next race we will be quicker.

"Confidence is still there. It was inevitable that this was going to happen because I've had such a good run in F1. This is all part of it. There's still a long way to go in the championship. Don't count me out yet. I intend to win it."

After an early puncture, Jenson Button suffered a race-ending collision with fellow Briton David Coulthard, who turned his Red Bull in on his friend's chasing Honda.

Massa was faultless after passing Poland's pole-man Kubica in the opening seconds to end his pointless start to the season. For now, at least, talk of his Ferrari career meeting an abrupt conclusion appears misguided.

The Brazilian, winning his second successive Bahrain race, said: "Sensational. Finally, after a start to the championship under dark clouds, I can see the sunshine again. We kept our concentration all weekend and this is the result. I knew we could count on a great car."

Joy for Massa, misery for Hamilton, but relief for all that Max Mosley's visit to a torture chamber was forgotten, if only for an hour-and-a-half.