Ferrari say they have the edge over rivals

Ferrari put clear distance between them and their Formula One rivals after notching up their third win in a row in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

World champion Kimi Raikkonen's second win of the season, and Ferrari's second successive one-two finish, put the Italian team well clear of the rest in both the drivers' and constructors' standings.

"Usually the Spanish Grand Prix is the litmus test for the pecking order down the grid after the first run of races outside Europe," said Ferrari's head of track activities Luca Baldisserri in a team review of the race.

"From what we saw, it seems we are maintaining a slight advantage, which means we can be reasonably confident about the rest of the season so long as we don't make any mistakes and continue to develop the car."

Raikkonen celebrated a hat-trick, only the second of his career, by adding the fastest lap to the race win and pole position.

The Finn is now nine points clear of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton while Ferrari have 47 points to BMW Sauber's 35.

After scoring just one point in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix won by Hamilton, Ferrari left no doubt on Sunday that they are the team to beat now that the sport is back in Europe.

Even though Raikkonen finished only 3.228 seconds ahead of Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, he had no need to force the pace.

"If we had wanted to, we could have gone a bit faster," he told a news conference.

"I think it was closer than we expected but, saying that, there were many (two) safety cars so without them maybe it would have been looking a little bit different."

Despite the apparent ease of his win, Raikkonen said it had been harder than his only previous victory at the Circuit de Catalunya with McLaren in 2005 − which he described at the time as a boring afternoon.

"I think that race was much easier," said the Finn.

"Okay, we had a safety car then also, but it was on the first lap so it was a pretty clear race."