Bridgestone motorsport wrap for 25th March 2008
Ferrari fights back in round two
Ferrari has rebounded from its woeful start to the 2008 Formula One season with victory for defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen at the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Starting from second on the grid on the hard compound Bridgestone Potenza tyres, Raikkonen dominated the race after jumping teammate and pole-sitter Felipe Massa at the first round of pit stops.
Massa spun out of the race at half-distance, allowing BMW's Robert Kubica to score a career-best second place ahead of the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen.
Third place wasn't much solace for McLaren however - Kovalainen finished a massive 40 seconds behind fellow Finn Raikkonen, while Melbourne winner Lewis Hamilton never recovered from a poor first pit stop to finish fifth, splitting the Toyota of Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld's BMW.
Fernando Alonso again struggled in his return to Renault, trailing Mark Webber's Red Bull home in eighth place.
"This was another hot race for us and another race where our tyre performance was very good," said Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Race Tyre Development.
"The track is more severe than before which is why we saw different tyre strategies compared to last year and this suited our tyre compound allocation very well. We saw a range of strategies from different competitors and this made for an interesting strategic race."
Hamilton remains in the lead of the drivers' championship with 14 points with Raikkonen on 11. McLaren leads the constructors' championship on 24 points with BMW five points further back in second.
The teams now travel to the Bahrain International Circuit on April 4-6 where Bridgestone's medium and soft compound Potenza tyres will be used for the third round of the championship.
Malaysian GP result - 56 laps
1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1h31m18.555s
2. KUBICA BMW +19.5s
3. KOVALAINEN McLaren +38.4s
4. TRULLI Toyota +45.8s
5. HAMILTON McLaren +46.5s
6. HEIDFELD BMW +49.8s
7. WEBBER Red Bull +1m08.1s
8. ALONSO Renault +1m10.0s
9. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m16.2s
10. BUTTON Honda +1m26.2s
11. PIQUET Renault +1m32.2s
12. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
13. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
14. ROSBERG Williams +1 lap
15. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 lap
16. SATO Super Aguri +2 laps
17. NAKAJIMA Williams +2 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +17 laps
R. MASSA Ferrari +26 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +51 laps
R. GLOCK Toyota +55 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +56 laps
Fastest lap: HEIDFELD 1m35.366s