Valencia, Spain - Ferrari's Felipe Massa kept McLaren rival Lewis Hamilton in check to clinch Formula One's debut on the streets of Valencia Sunday.

The Brazilian controlled the European Grand Prix from pole position, with championship leader Hamilton of Britain well beaten in second place, more than five seconds behind.

Robert Kubica of Poland in a BMW Sauber was third ahead of Mclaren's Heikki Kovalainen of Finland.

Jarno Trulli of Italy in a Toyota finished fifth ahead of a trio of German drivers in Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso), Timo Glock (Toyota) and Nico Rosberg (Williams).

Massa's victory, his fourth of the season and his ninth in 99 Grand Prix races, moves him to 64 points in the drivers' standings, six behind Hamilton. Raikkonen slips to third on 57, with Kubica on 55.

Massa and Ferrari were the subject of an inquiry after a near-collision with Force India's Adrian Sutil as the two emerged from the pit lane after a second stop.

Ferrari were fined 10,000 euros (14,700 dollars) over the incident but Massa escaped any punishment.

And in mixed fortunes for Ferrari, team-mate Kimi Raikkonen's race ended with 12 laps remaining when his engine blew-up while lying fourth.

The incident was a scare for Ferrari - and particularly for Massa who suffered similar engine failure while heading for almost certain victory in Hungary three weeks ago.

"It's nothing more we can ask for especially after such a bad result (in Hungary)," Massa said.

Massa said he felt German driver Sutil was in the wrong for the near-collision in the pit lane.

"I think it wasn't very clever from his side," he said.

"Even if he goes out ahead of me he should let me go by...I stopped behind him on the pit stop and we left together. We were side by side but I was the leader and he was the lapping car."

Defending champion Raikkonen had a pit stop problem of his own when two laps before his engine failure he ran over a mechanic after setting off from fuelling before the fuel hose had been removed.

The mechanic was taken to the circuit's medical centre for treatment, but gave the thumbs up sign as he was stretchered away.

The pit stop incidents added a touch of drama to a largely uneventful race around Valancia's marina in Formula One's debut on the newly-designed street circuit.

Massa got smoothly away from pole and gradually built up a lead over the British driver, who in turn could open an even larger gap on Kubica after fending off an initial challenge from the Pole.

To the dismay of the home crowd, Spain's Fernando Alonso was unable to complete a lap after being shunted by Japan's Kazuki Nakajima in a Williams.

Alonso steered his damaged Renault into the pits for a new rear wing but then discovered the suspension was also broken to end his race.

Massa kept his lead after an early pit stop, with Hamilton unable to capitalize on staying out two laps longer. It turned into a procession with the leading drivers unable to test each other.

Although Massa was never in danger on the circuit, he almost went into Sutil coming out of the pit lane with 20 laps remaining as the pair emerged at the same time.

Hamilton said he was satisfied with the result.

"We've had quite a strong weekend," he said.

"I've had a traumatised weekend - I've had a few problem health-wise. We got some good points. It was a solid weekend for us."