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