Raikkonen leads home Ferrari 1-2 in an eventful Spanish GP

Raikkonen cruised home to take the win from team mate Massa and McLaren's Hamilton

Kimi Raikkonen increased his championship lead to nine points with a comfortable victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, as Ferrari scored a second consecutive 1-2 finish.

The reigning champion controlled the race from pole position and faced no real pressure from Felipe Massa, maintaining the clear advantage he had shown all weekend.

Although the team-mates were separated by just 3.2 seconds at the chequered flag, the margin would have been larger but for two safety car periods in an uncharacteristically incident-filled Barcelona race.

Lewis Hamilton recovered well from his disastrous Bahrain GP and a disappointing qualifying session to take the final podium place.

The Briton lost further ground to Raikkonen in the points standings but took encouragement from a much more competitive showing as he chased Massa gamely in the closing stages.

His team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was fortunate to escape serious injury after his McLaren plunged into the tyre barriers with terrifying force at one-third distance.

The Finn was airlifted to hospital for precautionary checks and McLaren reported that he had sustained apparently minor concussion and a bruised elbow but no other obvious injuries.

After his heroics in qualifying on Saturday, Fernando Alonso’s hopes of rewarding the 130,000-strong crowd with a big result in the race were shattered by an engine failure at half-distance.

Alonso had an anxious moment near the end of the formation lap when, warming up his tyres rather over-zealously, he slid across the grass at the last corner.

He avoided the embarrassment of a spin before the race had even got underway – but the excursion may have contributed to his being outdragged by Massa off the startline.

Raikkonen got away well from pole, while fourth-placed Robert Kubica again made a tardy getaway in the BMW and had the McLarens swarming either side of him on the run to the first corner.

Hamilton made an incisive move inside the Pole to take fourth, which – given that Alonso was expected to pit earlier than the other front-runners – put him on course for a podium finish.

Moments later the safety car was deployed after Adrian Sutil spun his Force India car in turn four and collected the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel, triggering the luckless German’s third first-lap retirement in four races.

The leaderboard at the restart read Raikkonen, Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, Nick Heidfeld (who had moved from ninth to seventh on the first lap), Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli and Nelson Piquet.

Raikkonen soon put some distance between himself and team-mate Massa, with Alonso, Hamilton and Kubica staying in touch throughout the opening stint.

As expected, the Renault driver was the first to pit, peeling off on lap 17.

When Massa followed suit three laps later, one lap before Raikkonen, it only tightened the Finn’s vice-like grip on the race.

Just as the pit stop cycle was in full swing, the slightly soporific rhythm of the race was interrupted by a monumental accident for Heikki Kovalainen.

The Finn, who had yet to pit, was turning into the 140mph Campsa corner when his left-front wheel suddenly buckled and the McLaren ploughed into the tyre barrier at unabated speed.


Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren speared off track and was cushioned in the tyre wall

The force of the impact left the MP4-23 buried in multiple rows of tyres, and did heavy damage to the monocoque.

But to everyone’s relief, Kovalainen gave a thumbs-up as he was taken by stretcher to the medical centre and initial reports suggested that he had sustained no major injuries.

A lengthy safety car period ensued while the clean-up operation was carried out.

The caution spelt disaster for Heidfeld, as the pit lane closed at the very time he needed to come in for service.

He chose to pit rather than run out of fuel on the circuit and was handed an automatic stop-and-go penalty for his troubles.

Worse, because he had to wait until the race restarted before serving the penalty, he fell to the very back of the field.

Heidfeld’s fate is sure to prompt renewed calls for the safety car rules to be revisited, after Kovalainen suffered for similarly arbitrary reasons in the Melbourne season-opener.

Soon after the restart, Spanish hearts sank as Alonso’s Renault, running fifth, blew up spectacularly as he powered through turn three.

It was a cruel way for the double world champion’s spirited home charge to end, and he deservedly received a hero’s welcome on his long walk back to the pits.

Nico Rosberg’s Williams was the next car to expire while lying seventh, in an unusually attrition-hit race which saw only 13 of the 22 starters take the chequered flag.

Raikkonen remained in control at the head of the field, holding a lead of three to four seconds through the race’s middle stages.

Massa, though, had to keep a close eye on his mirrors – especially after the final pit stops, when Hamilton began to edge closer to the Ferrari as he found his car handling well on the harder tyres.

Kubica was in close attendance, too, ultimately finishing just 1.5s behind his good friend and generational rival to underline BMW’s recent promotion to the top rank of F1 teams.

Webber took a strong fifth place for Red Bull Racing, while Jenson Button scored Honda’s first points of the year with a fine sixth, helped by a long middle stint and late final stop.


Hundreds of Spanish fans left early as local Alonso's engine failed on lap 35

Trulli, by contrast, had to make one more pit visit than everyone else and slipped to eighth place, having pursued Webber for most of the afternoon.

That promoted Kazuki Nakajima in the Toyota-powered Williams to seventh, capping off the Japanese rookie’s most convincing F1 weekend to date.

Heidfeld chased Trulli for the final point in the closing laps, but left Barcelona empty-handed.


Spanish GP result after 66 laps
1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari
2. MASSA Ferrari +3.2s
3. HAMILTON McLaren +4.1s
4. KUBICA BMW +5.6s
5. WEBBER Red Bull +35.9s
6. BUTTON Honda +53.0s
7. NAKAJIMA Williams +58.2s
8. TRULLI Toyota +59.4s
9. HEIDFELD BMW +63.0s
10. FISICHELLA Force India +1 lap
11. GLOCK Toyota +1 lap
12. COULTHARD Red Bull +1 lap
13. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
R. ROSBERG Williams +25 laps
R. ALONSO Renault +32 laps
R. BARRICHELLO Honda +32 laps
R. KOVALAINEN McLaren +45 laps
R. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +58 laps
R. BOURDAIS Toro Rosso +59 laps
R. PIQUET Renault +60 laps
R. SUTIL Force India +66 laps
R. VETTEL Toro Rosso +66 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1m21.670s


Two safety car periods meant Ferrari's win wasn't as dominant as in Bahrain and Malaysia

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