Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the Malaysian Grand Prix and revived Formula One's title series yesterday, setting up an expected season-long struggle with McLaren.
Raikkonen had moved ahead of pole-sitting teammate Felipe Massa after the first set of pit stops at Sepang and cruised to victory, 20 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen a further 19 seconds back in third.
Massa spun off on the 31st lap under no pressure while running in second place.
The McLaren pair of Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton started from eighth and ninth place after receiving five grid place penalties for causing interference in qualifying and were never a threat to the Ferraris.
"I was able to go much quicker in my in-lap and pass him [Massa]," Raikkonen said. "It was a pretty easy race after the first pit stop. We didn't want to risk [a collision] with teammates at the first corner, so I decided to wait for the first pit stop and it worked out perfectly."
After starting ninth, Hamilton was further compromised by a poor first pit stop that lasted 20 seconds, as mechanics struggled to remove the right front wheel, with large amounts of brake dust being released, demonstrating how hard the Briton had pushed in the early laps. He spent much of the race stuck behind the slower Red Bull of Mark Webber, and finished fifth, closing hard behind Toyota's Jarno Trulli but unable to pass the fourth-placed Italian.
BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was sixth and set the fastest lap, while Webber held on for seventh in front of Renault's Fernando Alonso.
It was the first time BMW Sauber had collected successive second places, after Heidfeld in Australia.
"I thought McLaren would be stronger," Kubica said. "We did the best pit stop and then kept the engine fresh for the next Grand Prix, which is important. I was just cruising at the end."
Kovalainen acknowledged third place was as much as McLaren could have hoped for after the grid penalties.
"We have to be pleased with the result," Kovalainen said. "After yesterday's penalties it was going to be a hard day for us."
The win lifted Raikkonen to 11 championship points, just three behind Hamilton, who won the season-opening race in Australia last week.
It helped the Ferrari team to recover from the disappointment of the Australian Grand Prix where the team gained just one point and both cars failed to finish.
Heidfeld was also on 11 championship points, one point ahead of Kovalainen.
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