Kimi Raikkonen is back and in style. His dominating display in Malaysian Grand Prix is just what the Tifosi has been expecting. Starting from 2nd on the grid, he made a superb start but still let his team-mate, Felipe Massa retain the lead through first few corners. The clever Finn made sure he stays within a second and a half by the time they make their first pit-stops. Once Massa came in, Kimi delivered a couple of astonishing laps. A shorter pit-stop for Kimi made sure he jumped his team-mate once he came out of the pits. He opened up a gap of about 5 seconds to second place Massa within a few laps.
Ferrari were headed for a 1-2 finish but then disaster strikes for Massa. He spun on the track and in the process, spoiling his teams chances of making it their 1st 1-2 finish this season. The reason for the spin is still unknown but its widely believed that lack of Traction Control is to blame for this and his earlier spin in Melbourne. Massa is finding it hard to cope with the technical changes and with mounting pressure from his own team-mate every passing day, he’s definitely feeling the heat.
Earlier on Saturday, Felipe delivered an absolute gem of a lap to clinch his first pole position of the season. Kimi set the overall fastest qualifying time but had to settle for the second place on the grid. The Mclaren drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton ended the qualifying session on 3rd and 4th places respectively. Both the drivers were later penalised for blocking other cars on track and were docked 5 places each. They eventually started the race from 8th and 9th on the grid.
It was always known that Ferrari and McLaren are the two front runners but BMW made sure they spring in a surprise or two. For the second race in a row, one of their drivers finished 2nd in the race. It was Heidfeld in Australia and Kubica here. He drove an excellent race and finished about 20 seconds behind Kimi. Heikki Kovalainen finished 3rd, another 20 seconds behind. His team-mate, Lewis Hamilton had a disastrous pit-stop which lasted 20 seconds and meant he couldn’t challenge for a podium finish.
He trailed Webber for most part of the race, unable to overtake him even with a faster car. He looked out of sorts in Malaysia and was often outpaced by his new team-mate. He finished the race in 5th place. Toyota driver Jarno Trulli had a great race as well and he brought home a 4th place for his team. This will come in as a pleasant surprise for the team. Toyota are one of the teams having the biggest budget in F1 yet they’ve failed to deiliver results. Heidfeld finished 6th, Webber ended the race in 7th while former champion, Alonso managed to hold on to the final point for this race.
The next race will be held at Bahrain on 6th of April and as always, Ferrari and McLaren are the two teams to look out for. Also, keep an eye on BMW as they might be able to register their first win in F1. The complete results from the Malaysian GP are as follows -
1 - Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 56 - 1:31:18.555
2 - Robert Kubica - BMW - 56 - +19.5 secs
3 - Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren-Mercedes - 56 - +38.4 secs
4 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota - 56 - +45.8 secs
5 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 56 - +46.5 secs
6 - Nick Heidfeld - BMW - 56 - +49.8 secs
7 - Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 56 - +68.1 secs
8 - Fernando Alonso - Renault - 56 - +70.0 secs
9 - David Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault - 56 - +76.2 secs
10 - Jenson Button - Honda - 56 - +86.2 secs
11 - Nelsinho Piquet - Renault - 56 - +92.2 secs
12 - Giancarlo Fisichella - Force India-Ferrari - 55 - +1 Lap
13 - Rubens Barrichello - Honda - 55 - +1 Lap
14 - Nico Rosberg - Williams-Toyota - 55 - +1 Lap
15 - Anthony Davidson - Super Aguri-Honda - 55 - +1 Lap
16 - Takuma Sato - Super Aguri-Honda - 54 - +2 Laps
17 - Kazuki Nakajima - Williams-Toyota - 54 - +2 Laps
Ret - Sebastian Vettel - STR-Ferrari - 39 - Hydraulics
Ret - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 30 - Spin
Ret - Adrian Sutil - Force India-Ferrari - 5 - Hydraulics
Ret - Timo Glock - Toyota - 1 - Accident
Ret - Sebastien Bourdais - STR-Ferrari - 0 - Spin
