Formula 1 Store | Formula 1 News - March, 2008 |
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Mar.23 (GMM) FERRARI Dominant winner Kimi Raikkonen followed Felipe Massa until the first pit stop, when a couple of masterful laps gave him the jump on his Brazilian teammate, who then threw his car into the gravel after clipping a kerb.-BMW-SAUBERRobert Kubica finished a lonely, distant and competitive second, but he looked second-hand on the podium after preferring not to sip from his boiling hot drinks bottle. "I didn't feel very well all weekend so the last ten laps were pretty tough," he admitted. Nick Heidfeld lost places at the start, but his sixth place was complemented by the late-race feat of setting the fastest lap.-MCLAREN-MERCEDESAnother difficult day for McLaren; not only outpaced by Kubica's BMW, but fumbling a pit stop that saw Lewis Hamilton shuffled out of contention for a podium, unable to either find a way past Mark Webber for many laps, or take in any water from his broken drinks bottle. Heikki Kovalainen finished third.-TOYOTAJarno Trulli completed a solid weekend with an excellent fourth place, even fending off Hamilton's late-race advances. Timo Glock was the early victim of an optimistic lunge by Nico Rosberg, retiring with broken rear suspension.-RED BULL-RENAULTMark Webber had a notable race, running fourth in the early stages, fending off Hamilton for many laps, and ultimately only missing sixth place because Takuma Sato held him up at a crucial point of the race. David Coulthard finished ninth after missing the drivers' parade, as he woke up feeling unwell.-RENAULTFernando Alonso scored the final point on offer, just behind Webber, and admitted that his R28 is simply not fast enough at this early stage of the season. Twenty two seconds later, Nelson Piquet finished. "There is a big gap to the front," engineering boss Pat Symonds rued frankly.-HONDATenth place for Jenson Button is an accurate reflection of Honda's current performance, while Rubens Barrichello struggled to keep up and worryingly finished behind a Force India, but only after a drive-through penalty for pit lane speeding.-FORCE INDIA-FERRARIGiancarlo Fisichella slotted into twelfth place following Barrichello's drive-through, and Adrian Sutil pulled off just a few laps into the race with failed hydraulics. "We showed that we are no longer the team bringing up the rear of the field," said owner Vijay Mallya.-WILLIAMS-TOYOTAFollowing the Melbourne podium, Williams' Malaysian nightmare got even worse on Sunday, as Rosberg crashed into Glock at the start and needed a new nose, while Kazuki Nakajima started from the back, picked up a puncture, and lost even more time when he ran off the track and was classified dead-last. "This was a race weekend to move on from," said technical director Sam Michael.-SUPER AGURI-HONDAIt is a mark of the struggling Japanese team's current situation that they were pleased simply to get both cars to the chequered flag at the back of the field in Malaysia.-TORO ROSSO-FERRARIIf Super Aguri were simply pleased to finish, the same cannot even be said for Toro Rosso, as Sebastian Vettel's failing car caught fire when he pulled over to retire, and Sebastien Bourdais spun into retirement on lap one.Discuss this topic on NewsOnF1 Forums
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