Looking
for a hotel in KL
and save up to 75% OFF normal room rates.
Who doesn't want that???
<click here>
1. Kimi Raikkonen Alonso (Ferrari)
Driver
Team
Race time
2.
Robert Kubica
BMW Sauber
+ 19.570s
3.
Heikki Kovalainen
McLaren Mercedes
+ 38.450s
4.
Jarno Trulli
Toyota
+ 45.832s
5.
Lewis Hamilton
McLaren Mercedes
+ 46.548s
6.
Nick Heidfeld
BMW Sauber
+ 49.833s
7.
Mark Webber
Red Bull Racing
+ 68.130s
8.
Fernando Alonso
Renault
+ 70.041s
9.
David Coulthard
Red Bull Racing
+ 76.220s
10.
Jenson Button
Honda Racing
+ 86.214s
11.
Nelson Piquet Jr
Renault
+ 92.202s
12.
Giancarlo Fisichella
Force India
+ 1 lap
13.
Rubens Barrichello
Honda Racing
+ 1 lap
14.
Nico Rosberg
Williams
+ 1 lap
15.
Anthony Davidson
Super Aguri F1
+ 1 lap
16.
Takuma Sato
Super Aguri F1
+ 2 laps
17.
Kazuki Nakajima
Williams
+ 2 laps
18.
Sebastian Vettel
Scuderia Toro Rosso
+ 17 laps
19.
Felipe Massa
Ferrari
+ 26 laps
20.
Adrian Sutil
Force India
+ 51 laps
21.
Timo Glock
Toyota
+ 55 laps
22.
Sebastien Bourdais
Scuderia Toro Rosso
+ 56 laps
Kimi Raikkonen said his path to victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix was
“pretty easy” once he took the lead from team-mate Felipe Massa at the first
round of pit stops.
Raikkonen stayed out one lap longer than Massa and used a blisteringly quick
in-lap to leapfrog the Brazilian.
Thereafter he pulled away into a race of his own, cruising to his second
Sepang triumph and getting his 2008 title campaign underway in earnest.
“We were pretty similar speed-wise [in the first stint],” he said. “Once Felipe went in my car got much better, because when you are one or two
seconds behind someone [the turbulence] makes a massive difference. I was able to go much quicker on my in-lap and I was able to pass him.
And after that when I was running on my own in free air the car was handling
perfectly and I was able to pull away. It was a pretty easy race from that point on.”
Despite starting from the dirty side of the grid, Raikkonen made a better
getaway than Massa and contemplated a passing move into the first corner, before
deciding that discretion was the better part of valour and tucking in behind his
team-mate.
“I got a bit better start than Felipe and got alongside him, but I knew that
we were running one lap longer and didn’t want a risky situation between
team-mates in the first corner,” the Finn explained.
“Maybe if I had pushed harder I could have made a pass, but I decided to stay
behind and try my move at the pit stop, and it worked out perfectly.”
Massa had looked like the man to beat after taking pole by nearly half a
second – but Raikkonen claimed he was always confident he would have the race
pace to challenge for victory.
“I think we still sometimes have difficulties to get the qualifying right,”
he said.
“It was good in Q2 but in the last part we couldn’t find the grip from the
tyres.
“We knew we were running one lap longer so I wasn’t really panicking. The car usually has been much stronger for us in the race than in
qualifying, so as long as we got close I thought we’d have a good chance to pass
him, and it worked out at the first pit stop already.
The car was very good all weekend but sometimes on new tyres it’s difficult
to get the best out of it. But the team did a great job this weekend."
Raikkonen leaves Malaysia just three points behind championship leader Lewis
Hamilton, while Massa has yet to get his name on the score board.
