Kimi Raikkonen won the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang

Kimi Raikkonen put the Australian Grand Prix disaster behind to win the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix in a flawless piece of driving on Sunday 23rd March at Sepang, Kuala Lampur. Starting from the second on the grid he overcome the team mate Massa after the first pit stop and claimed a comfortable victory.

The Ferrari driver cruised home 19.5 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber with Heikki Kovalainen finishing third for McLaren. Lewis Hamilton finished fifth behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota after a bungled pit stop cost the Brit a chance of a podium.

Pole-sitter Ferrari's Felipe Massa saw his race end after 30 laps by spinning out of an easy second place.

A Ferrari victory had looked odds-on before the race as chief rivals Kovalainen and Hamilton had both been hit by five-place grid penalties for impeding Nick Heidfeld and Fernando Alonso at the end of yesterday's qualifying session, meaning they lined up eighth and ninth respectively.

Nick Heidfeld set fastest lap in the closing stages as he thirsted after Hamilton, while Webber was able to hold off a challenging Fernando Alonso in the Renault as they wrapped up the final points.

David Coulthard had a relatively quiet race to ninth in the second Red Bull ahead of fellow Briton, Jenson Button, who survived a late off-track moment in his Honda to lead home Renault’s Nelson Piquet, the Brazilian rookie recording his first Grand Prix finish.

Giancarlo Fisichella was 12th for Force India, a lap down, taking the place after Honda’s Rubens Barrichello had to serve a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding.


Top 3 Drivers at 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix

Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari

Robert Kubica - BMW

Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren


Standing after 2nd Race in 2008


Driver's Championship

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 14 points

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 11 points

Nick Heidfeld (BMW) - 11 points

Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren) - 10 points


Constructor's Championship

McLaren-Mercedese - 24 points

BMW - 19 points

Ferrari - 11 points

Williams - 9 points

Malaysian Grand Prix - Ferrari's Felippa Massa takes Pole, Raikkonen Second

Felipe Massa will head an all-Ferrari front row after the Brazilian took pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix for the second consecutive year. His team mate Kimi Raikkonen share the front row at second place.

Massa's time of one minute 35.748 seconds beat Kimi Raikkonen by nearly half a second with Heikki Kovalainen out-pacing team-mate Lewis Hamilton to claim third for McLaren.

Season opening Australian Grand Prix winner Hamilton will start the 56-lap race from fourth on the grid after his time of 1min 36.709secs trailed Massa by nearly a full second. He will be disappointed with a performance that fell below his usual high standards.

Jarno Trulli will start an impressive fifth for Toyota, while Kubica took sixth for BMW Sauber with team-mate Heidfeld seventh. Mark Webber qualified eighth for Red Bull, Fernando Alonso ninth in his Renault and Toyota's Timo Glock rounded out the top 10.

Jenson Button of Honda 11th followed by Red Bull’s David Coulthard, Renault's Nelson Piquet, Rubens Barrichello in the second Honda, Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg for Williams on 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th respectively.

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella took 17th place and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais on 18th. The Super Aguris of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were separated by Adrian Sutil’s Force India.

Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix Update - Hamilton is fastest at Sepang

In second free practice of the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton of McLaren set the fastest time. After the first day of practice for the Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix, there is a chance of close fight between McLaren and Ferrari for the rest of the weekend.

Felipe Massa had dominated the first session and the Ferraris had once again held the upper hand for the majority of the second 90-minute practice period.

But Hamilton produced a lap of one minute 35.055 seconds, the fastest of the day, to edge out Massa by just over a tenth of a second with Kimi Raikkonen 0.373secs back in third, demonstrating the championship pacesetter will be a force to be reckoned with in Sepang.

Summary of the first day of practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix

McLaren
Lewis Hamilton, 1m 36.626s, P5/1m 35.055s, P1
Heikki Kovalainen, 1m 36.556s, P3/1m 36.512s, P7

Ferrari
Felipe Massa, 1m 35.392s, P1/1m 35.206s, P2
Kimi Raikkonen, 1m 36.459s, P2/1m 35.428s, P3

Honda
Jenson Button, 1m 37.282s, P9/1m 36.037s, P4
Rubens Barrichello, 1m 37.776s, P13/1m 36.879s, P11

Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel, 1m 38.219s, P15/1m 36.474s, P5
Sebastien Bourdais, 1m 38.798s, P18/No time

Toyota
Jarno Trulli, 1m 37.540s, P10/1m 36.493s, P6
Timo Glock, 1m 37.782s, P14/1m 37.512s, P17

BMW Sauber
Robert Kubica, 1m 37.218s, P8/1m 36.671s, P8
Nick Heidfeld, 1m 37.649s, P11/1m 37.106s, P13

Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella, 1m 39.046s, P19/1m 36.756s, P9
Adrian Sutil, 1m 41.269s, P22/1m 37.614s, P18

Williams
Kazuki Nakajima, 1m 37.649s, P12/1m 36.838s, P10
Nico Rosberg, 1m 36.578s, P4/1m 36.908s, P12

Renault
Fernando Alonso, 1m 37.022s, P6/1m 37.328s, P14
Nelson Piquet Jr, 1m 37.034s, P7/1m 37.331s, P15

Red Bull
Mark Webber, 1m 38.707s, P17/1m 37.346s, P16
David Coulthard, 1m 38.232s, P16/No time

Super Aguri
Takuma Sato, 1m 40.178s, P20/1m 39.021s, P19
Anthony Davidson, 1m 40.351s, P21/1m 39.361s, P20

Lewis Hamilton won Australian Grand Prix, Nick Heidfeld second

McLaren British driver Lewis Hamilton won the season opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park, Melbourne on Sunday, 16th March 2008.

The drama simply couldn't catch up with Hamilton's McLaren at the front of the field as the Englishman drove a spectacular and flawless race from start to finish to clinch the first GP of the season and register his first win at Albert Park.

Only seven drivers effectively made it across the chequered flag - with Bourdais and Raikkkonen being classified despite their respective retirements in the dying stages of the race.
McLaren will be disappointed at not having a stronger result from Kovalainen who clearly lost out after the third safety car period threw his pit strategy haywire; and disturbed the one:two formation that the team held through several parts of the race.

BMW proved that they're clearly a team to contend with this season with Nick Heidfeld bringing home a worthy second place for the team after Kubica's misfortune following a great qualifying outing. They will undoubtedly be hunting for their maiden victory sooner than later.

Nico Rosberg registered his first ever podium place and seemed delighted with the Williams package, which also looked impressive all weekend.

Fernando Alonso finished 4th in his Renault, Kovalainen 5th in McLaren, Rubens Barrichello finished sixth with Honda, Kazuki Nakajima seventh in Williams and Sebastien Bourdais grabbed the final point with Toro Rosso.

Force India F1 has the disaster start of their Formula 1 debut season as both of their drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil not able to finish the race.

The 58-lap, action-packed race saw six different teams picking up points with McLaren and Williams being the only two constructors to have both their drivers finish in the points.
Ferrari had a race-to-forget and will want to prove a point next weekend as the season turns to Malaysian Grand Prix at the fabulous race-track in Sepang.

Top 3 Drivers at Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren

Nick Heidfeld - BMW

Nico Rosberg - Williams


Standing after 1st Race


Driver's Championship

Lewis Hamilton(McLaren) - 10 points

Nick Heidfeld (BMW) - 8 points

Nico Rosberg (Williams) - 6 points


Constructor's Championship

McLaren-Mercedese - 14 points

BMW - 8 points

Williams - 8 points

Lewis Hamilton takes Pole Position in Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne

Lewis Hamilton got his bid for the Formula One world championship off to the perfect start after taking pole position for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. This is Briton's seventh career pole.

The McLaren driver's time of one minute 26.714 seconds was good enough to edge out Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber by 0.155 secs. It was a good day for McLaren, with Heikki Kovalainen taking third, ahead of Massa, with 1m 27.079s.

With Kimi Raikkonen already sidelined after problems in Q2, team mate Felipe Massa had to uphold Ferrari honour alone in Q3, but after recording 1m 27.178s on his first run, he failed to improve on his second. Kubica, meanwhile, was on a blinder that resulted in 1m 26.869s even though he ran wide in Turn Nine. The Pole kept his foot in it and didn’t appear to lose an awful lot of time, and planted his BMW Sauber on the front row for the first time in his career.

Nick Heidfeld’s 1m 27.236s was good enough for fifth in the second BMW Sauber, then came Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on 1m 28.527s, Nico Rosberg’s Williams on 1m 28.687s, David Coulthard’s Red Bull on 1m 29.041s and Timo Glock’s Toyota on 1m 29.593s, while Sebastian Vettel ended an impressive 10th for Toro Rosso.

So wait and watch who will win the 2008 season opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, 16th March.

Summary of the first day of practice for the ING Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne

The first day of practice for the ING Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne’s Albert Park saw Ferrari and McLaren evenly matched, but was generally confusing as all sorts of differing fuel loads were used as drivers set their fastest times.

Kimi Raikkonen looked impressive as the Ferrari driver topped the time sheets in Thursday morning's first practice for the Australian Grand Prix.

The Finn played down his favourite's tag on Wednesday but his time of one minute 26.461 seconds was nearly half a second quicker than the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton and served early notice he will be the man to beat at Albert Park this weekend.

Summary of the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix

Ferrari
Fastest lap of day, Raikkonen 1m 26.461s, morning

McLaren
Fastest lap of day, Hamilton 1m 26.559s, afternoon

Red Bull
Fastest lap of day, Webber, 1m 27.473s, afternoon

Toyota
Fastest lap of day, Trulli, 1m 28.292s, afternoon
Williams
Fastest lap of day, Rosberg, 1m 28.352s, afternoon

Renault
Fastest lap of day, Alonso, 1m 28.360s, morning

Force India
Fastest lap of day, Fisichella, 1m 28.469s, afternoon

BMW Sauber
Fastest lap of day, Kubica, 1m 28.579s, morning

Honda
Fastest lap of day, Button, 1m 28.632s, afternoon

Toro Rosso
Fastest lap of day, Vettel, 1m 28.957s, morning

Super Aguri
Fastest lap of day, Sato, 1m 30.663s, afternoon