F1 - Malaysian GP - Race 23/03/08

Raikkonen shines for Ferrari

It may not have been the most entertaining of races for the fans, but for Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari his dominant Malaysian Grand Prix victory is just what he needed following the disappointment in Melbourne a week ago.

Starting second, the defending champion was happy to shadow pole-sitter and team-mate Felipe Massa until the first round of pit stops and then put in a quick lap to ensure that he exited the pit just ahead. With the race lead in his hands, Raikkonen quickly pulled a four second advantage on Massa who then spun his Ferrari into retirement.

Starting fourth, Robert Kubica made best of Jarno Trulli’s bad start to run a comfortable third for the first half of the race before taking over second position when Massa retired. The BMW Sauber driver took the chequered flag just under 20 seconds behind Raikkonen and a similar margin ahead of third placed finisher Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren Mercedes.

Kovalainen drove an error free race but to take the chequered flag 40 seconds behind the winner. After their Melbourne performance, the result will be a shock for McLaren who by their own admission have struggled this weekend.



Jarno Trulli started third but he and Nick Heidfeld found themselves squeezed out of the pack through turns one and two at the start of the race. The Toyota driver recovered and took a comfortable fourth in the much-improved TF108, despite late race pressure from Lewis Hamilton.

For Hamilton, the race was always going to be about damage limitation but surprisingly he opted to run the softer type in both the first and second stint. In the third and final sting when it was effectively too late to make any further progress, the Melbourne winner was much faster as he chased Trulli across the line, just 0.7 seconds adrift.

Hamilton also lost ground in his first stop when his front right wheel insert slowed the wheel change by an additional ten seconds, so it was a case of lost opportunity for the championship leader who heads to Bahrain with a three point advantage over his nearest rival.

After losing out at the start of the race as Trulli pushed him wide, Nick Heidfeld was unable to regain the lost ground as he took the chequered flag in sixth position ahead of Mark Webber who will feel he and the team deserved more than two points from this event. The second round of stops saw the Red Bull Renault driver lose out to both Hamilton and Heidfeld but the Australian battled hard to keep Fernando Alonso behind to the flag.



For Renault, eighth position for Alonso and 11th place from Piquet was a fair result but not the kind of performance they would have hoped for heading into the weekend. Piquet had a much better weekend than in Australia and over the 58-lap race, lost just 22 seconds to his double world championship winning team-mate.

David Coulthard had a trouble-free run to ninth place in the second Red Bull Renault ahead of Jenson Button in the leading Honda. Giancarlo Fisichella drove a good race for Force India Ferrari to record the team’s first finish with 12th position ahead of Rubens Barrichello who served a drive through penalty late in the race after speeding in the pit.

Over at Williams Toyota, the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend has been disappointing. Starting 16th Nico Rosberg ran into the back of Timo Glock forcing the retirement of the Toyota driver. After pitting for a new front wing, Rosberg was unable to make much progress and finished 14th. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima finished last in 17th position.

Anthony Davidson finished 15th in his Super Aguri Honda a lap clear of team-mate Takuma Sato. Over at Toro Rosso, Sebastien Bourdais spun into retirement on the first lap while Sebastian Vettel survived a while longer before the Ferrari engine failed.

Hamilton retains the lead of the championship, but now leads Raikkonen and Nick Heidfeld by just three points with Heikki Kovalainen just one point adrift in fourth. The Formula One circus packs up and heads to Bahrain in two weeks time. Two teams tested there for six days in the off-season and they were Ferrari and Toyota...

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International

F1-Australian GP - Race 16/03/2008

Anyone finishing the opening race of the new season was awarded a championship point in what was a fraught race for many including three safety car periods. One man having no problems whatsoever was Lewis Hamilton who dominated the Australian Grand Prix from the pole position while all of his major championship rivals hit trouble.

With Hamilton cruising to the race win, Heikki Kovalainen looked set to make it a McLaren one-two until the timing of the third safety car compromised his race dropping him down the order. This handed Nick Heidfeld a solid second position in the BMW Sauber.

Starting second and fifth, BMW Sauber had been expected to challenge McLaren for the race win but the reality was that McLaren were far too strong in race trim today.

Nico Rosberg has waited a long time, but today’s action packed race saw the Williams Toyota record his first podium position after a fine error free drive. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima survived a clash with Robert Kubica whilst behind the safety car to finish in seventh position, the final finisher in this incident strewn race.

Fernando Alonso kept his nose clean in the Renault to finish in fourth position, having a tremendous scrap with Kovalainen over the final two laps to take the position. Kovalainen should have had more, but hitting the pit lane speed limiter by mistake coming onto the main straight on the last lap saw Alonso pounce and take the position.

Rubens Barrichello finished the race in sixth position after an eventful race. Running as high as fourth in the much improved Honda, the team instructed him to leave the pit before re0fuelling was complete. In addition Barrichello has made the stop when the pit lane was closed so the Brazilian veteran received a stop and go penalty. To cap off a tense few minutes for the Honda team, Barrichello seemed to exit the pits with the red light showing. It remains to be seen if sixth position will stand.

Sebastien Bourdais had a very strong Grand Prix debut holding back both Alonso and Kovalainen in the closing position while running fourth. An engine failure almost within sight of the chequered flag robbed the Frenchman of fourth position, but with no one else still running, is classified in eighth position.

The race was a disaster for Ferrari. Errors from the team and both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen see the defending champions leave Albert Park with no points. Raikkonen made up ground early on to move through the field. The team did not bring the Finn in during the second safety car period and Raikkonen found himself battling hard with Kovalainen.

A mistake from Raikkonen saw him run too deep into turn three and into the gravel trap. Raikkonen was soon back underway but pitted the very next lap pitting himself at the back of the field. Why Ferrari did not pit him sooner is not clear. Raikkonen soon closed down a 15 second gap to Timo Glock but then spun at turn three while trying to make a pass. It would prove academic as the F2008 slowed with an engine issue in the closing staged and Raikkonen retired from the race.

Felipe Massa started in fourth position but spun exiting turn one at the start and was forced to pit for a new front wing. From here Massa battled hard making contact with David Coulthard in what was a racing incident into turn one on lap 26 but would later retire with a mechanical problem.

Robert Kubica started on the front row of the grid but did not have the pace to run with Hamilton. Some rather oddly timed pits stops saw the Pole fall down the order before being hit from behind from Nakajima ending his disappointing race.

Timo Glock was having a steady race in his Toyota and could have picked up some points but running wide in the latter stages of the race, the TF108 was rather alarmingly launched into the air – crashing back down to earth breaking most of the suspension. Glock was able to climb from the badly damaged car. Team-mate Jarno Trulli had retired early on with a battery issue.

The start of the race saw five drivers eliminated with Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastian Vettel, Anthony Davidson, Jenson Button and Mark Webber all making contact in the opening turns. Adrian Sutil retired the second Force India with a mechanical problem after starting the race from the pit lane having damaged his primary car yesterday in qualifying.

A scrappy opening race to the season, but the Formula One circus now packs up and heads straight to Sepang where first practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix gets underway on Friday.

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International