Round Two to Raikkonen

On the anniversary of his first career win five years ago at the same track, Kimi Raikkonen led the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team to a dominating victory over the rest of the field for the Malaysian GP.  After qualifying 2^nd to his team mate Felipe Massa and having a drag race down to the first turn, the team mates were able to get away from the start cleanly and put the disaster of the Australian GP behind them.

In the first pit stop period both of the Ferrari’s were able to slowly create a gap to the rest of the field, arguably due to the McLaren team mates penalty during qualifying putting them back at 8^th and 9^th in the field. During the first pit stop exchange Raikkonen proved his Championship driving abilities and put down a blistering fast lap that allowed him to leap frog Massa and take the lead away. Later in the race Massa spun out into the gravel trap and gave 2^nd away to Robert Kubica of the BMW-Sauber team.

During the post race interviews Raikkonen commented on the start of the race, “I got alongside Felipe after I got a bit better start but I thought we don't want to risk between the team-mates in the first corner, and I decided to stay behind and try my move on the first stop and it worked out perfectly. We were pretty similar speed-wise, but once he went in my car went better and I was able to go much quicker on my in-lap and pass him. After that the car was handling perfectly and I was able to go away.”

After this result, Raikkonen has taken 2^nd place in the Championship to who will likely be his main competition outside of the team, Lewis Hamilton for the Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes team.  Hamilton suffered from an unfortunate pit stop issue with his right front wheel that ended up costing him twenty seconds and an eventual 5^th place finish.