Raikkonen's back with a bang in Sepang

MOTOR SPORTWORLD CHAMPION Kimi Raikkonen bounced back from a disastrous opening race to his 2008 campaign to score an easy victory in yesterday's Malaysian Grand Prix after chief rival Lewis Hamilton suffered the kind of setbacks that had ruined the Finn's race in Melbourne a week ago.

In Australia, Raikkonen had suffered a fuel-pressure problem in qualifying that relegated him to the back of the grid and then in the race spun out while pushing to catch winner Hamilton before his Ferrari eventually gave up the ghost in the closing laps.

Hamilton wasn't hit quite as hard in Sepang yesterday but a five-place demotion down the grid on Saturday and a pitlane mishap during the main event meant the 2007 drivers' championship runner-up was forced to watch Raikkonen glide to victory.

Hamilton's woes began in Saturday's grid shoot-out when having scored the fourth-fastest time of the afternoon, behind pole winner Felipe Massa of Ferrari, Raikkonen and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen, he slowed to conserve fuel in the dying moments of the qualifying session: a wise move under new rules which state cars may not be refuelled between qualifying and the start of the race.

Wise except that he was unaware BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was arrowing down the track behind him in pursuit of his fastest time of the session.

Hamilton and team-mate Kovalainen were adjudged to have impeded Heidfeld and Renault's Fernando Alonso and the pair were dropped back to eighth and ninth on the grid for yesterday's start. A blow but not a disaster.

And at the start of the race the McLaren duo set about undoing the damage, Hamilton rising to fifth by the third corner, taking advantage of a coming together between Toyota's Trulli and Heidfeld that saw both run wide.

The move set the tone for the opening stint as Hamilton attempted to keep pace with the leaders: pole-sitter Felipe Massa and second-placed Raikkonen with BMW's Robert Kubica third and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber fourth.

The Red Bull driver provided the next dent in Hamilton's plans as he boxed the McLaren in through the opening laps, giving Massa and Raikkonen time and space to open up a healthy gap.

It was only when Webber entered the pits on lap 16 that Hamilton and Kovalainen could start to close in.

But then came their own first visits to pitlane and it was there Hamilton's hopes faded.

The Englishman came in for fuel and tyres on lap 19 but his crew struggled to remove the front-right wheel, leaving the McLaren driver stranded for almost 20 seconds and putting him again behind Webber when he rejoined the track in 11th place.

From there it was all Hamilton could do to claw his way to an eventual fifth behind the Toyota of Jarno Trulli.

"I could do with a beer," Hamilton said with a smile when asked what had gone through his mind during the long seconds of his first stop. "I was pushing Mark for a long, long time but being behind someone is extremely difficult so it doesn't matter how much quicker you are, it makes it extremely difficult to get past.

"He drove fantastically well and then we were in with a good shot for third place until the poor pitstop. I am not sure what the problem was; we will have to look into it. I think we need a new wheel gun.

"I did the best job I could with it but I also had run out of water - I didn't run out of water, it (the bottle) just didn't work so I am very, very thirsty."

By contrast, Raikkonen's race could hardly have been smoother. After slotting in behind team-mate Massa into turn one, Raikkonen kept pace with the Brazilian through the opening laps.

When Massa pitted on lap 17, the world champion effortlessly set a fastest lap of the race thus far and then arced his own Ferrari toward pitlane, taking half a second less than his team-mate to emerge in front of Massa and in control of the race.

Everything after was a formality for the champion.

Not so for the Brazilian Massa, who seemed set for second place but, in what appeared to be a lapse of concentration on lap 31, left his braking a fraction too late through turns seven and eight and spun, beaching his car in the gravel traps. Race over.

It was left to BMW's Robert Kubica to mop up second place.

Kovalainen, who, unlike team-mate Hamilton had enjoyed a trouble-free run, was third ahead of Trulli, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Webber and Alonso.

Kovalainen's finish confirmed that, despite their weekend set-backs, McLaren still appear to be the pace of the field, both cars starting with greater fuel loads yet managing to overcome poor starting positions to fight for podium places.

"Without the penalty, I believe we could have finished in second place but this is racing, those are the rules," Hamilton said afterwards.

"We must look forward to the next race, we are still leading."

At Sepang

1 Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:31:18.555

2 Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber +00:19.570

3 Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 00:38.450

4 Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 00:45.832

5 Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 00:46.548

6. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 00:49.833

7 Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 01:08.130

8 Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 01:10.041

9 David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 01:16.220

10 Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 01:26.214

11 Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 01:32.202

12 Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India 1 lap; 13 Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 1 lap; 14 Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 1 lap; 15 Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri 1 lap; 16 Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri 2 laps; 17 Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 2 laps. Retired:Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso 17 laps; Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 26 laps; Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India 51 laps; Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 55 laps; Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso 56 laps.

Fastest Lap:Heidfeld, 1:35.366, lap 55.

Standings: Drivers:1 Hamilton 14; 2 Raikkonen 11; 3 Heidfeld 11; 4 Kovalainen 10; 5 Kubica 8; 6 Rosberg 6; 7 Alonso 6; 8 Trulli 5; 9 Nakajima 3; 10 Bourdais 2; 11 Webber 2; 12 Coulthard 0; 13 Button 0; 14 Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 0; 15 Fisichella 0; 16 Barrichello 0; 17 Davidson 0; 18 Sato 0.

Constructors Points:1 McLaren 24; 2 BMW Sauber 19; 3 Ferrari 11; 4 Williams 9; 5 Renault 6; 6 Toyota 5; 7 Red Bull 2; 8 Toro Rosso 2; 9 Honda 0; 10 Force India 0; 11 Super Aguri 0.