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Raikkonen bounces back with win in Malaysia

Sun 23rd, March 2008

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Sports Network) - Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen captured the Malaysian Grand Prix, the second race of the 2008 Formula One season. The No.1 Ferrari crossed the finish line 19.570 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica to rebound from an eighth place finish in Australia.

The victory, on the 3.444-mile Sepang Circuit, was the first of the season and 16th of his F1 career.

"The car was handling perfectly," said Raikkonen.

The two Ferraris, starting one-two, quickly took off at the drop of the green flag, building 2.5 seconds on third-place Kubica after just one lap.

Meanwhile, last week's Australian GP winner, Lewis Hamilton, also made a good start, jumping up to fifth. Only Timo Glock and Nico Rosberg suffered any damage, a far cry from last week's carnage in Melbourne.

Massa was showing the way, setting a fastest lap on the third circuit to expand his lead over his teammate to 1.6 seconds. Both the Ferraris were adding half-a-second on the field on every lap.

Neither Hamilton, nor teammate Heikki Kovalainen seem to have the speed that Ferrari was showing. Hamilton was even having trouble staying in front of Jarno Trulli in a Toyota.

Hamilton's McLaren seemed to improve, enough so that he could challenge Mark Webber for fourth place, though he was still running almost one second slower than Massa.

When the first round of pit stops began, Massa held 1.9 seconds on Raikkonen, 13.5 seconds on Kubica and 20 seconds on Webber and Hamilton.

With Massa in the pits, Raikkonen set a new fastest lap. Would it be enough to get him the lead?

The Finn came out just as Massa was flying down the front straight and he slipped in front of the Brazilian. When the field had cycled through it was the defending champion with the lead.

Meanwhile, Hamilton's pit stop was almost 20 seconds after the team had a problem getting the right-front wheel off. It left Hamilton in 11th place.

Raikkonen's lead was 3.5 seconds and almost 15 seconds on Kubica in third place. The most interesting fight on the track was between Kovalainen and Trulli for fourth place.

Ferrari was completely dominating after 25 laps.

The only question being would the Ferrari engine last all 56 laps after problems last week in Australia?

Massa was still trying his hardest to catch Raikkonen and it cost him on lap 30. He spun out between turn 7 and turn 8 and he got stuck in the gravel pit. It was a second consecutive bad weekend for the Brazilian and zero championship points again for one of the preseason contenders.

"I don't know what happened," said a disappointed Massa.

Coming into the second and final round of pit stops, Raikkonen's lead was 24.5 second over Kubica. A flawless 8.5-second stop and Raikkonen was in line for his first win of 2008.

Then one of the Toro Rosso cars (Sebastien Vettel) blew an engine. They use Ferrari horsepower.

Would Raikkonen suffer the same fate?

His lead was still 19.9 seconds over Kubica with 10 laps remaining. Kovalainen was in line for his first podium finish of 2008 and second of his career - holding a 7.5-second lead on Trulli.

Raikkonen's engine stayed together and he cruised to the win. Kubica collected a second place and Kovalainen earned the third spot on the podium.

Trulli, Hamilton, Nick Heidfeld, Webber and Fernando Alonso completed the points-scoring positions.

Hamilton's fifth-place finish helped him retain the championship lead. His 14 points is three ahead of Raikkonen and Heidfeld.

The third race of the season is set for Sunday, April 6th in Bahrain.

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