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