Raikkonen leads Ferrari to win in Spanish GP

BARCELONA: Defending drivers world champion Kimi Raikkonen extended his lead in this year's title race to nine points yesterday when he drove to a comfortable victory in an incident-filled Spanish Grand Prix.

The Finn, driving a Ferrari, led from start to finish, bar the pit stops, to dominate the contest and consolidate his and his team's position as the in-form outfit after four races this season.

Raikkonen's win was his 17th in a career often beset by bad luck in earlier times and endorsed the wideheld feeling that he has happier at Ferrari and in the form of his life.

His Ferrari team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa drove a solid race to finish second, after starting third on the grid, ahead of Briton Lewis Hamilton in a McLaren-Mercedes. Read More

Kimi Raikkonen takes pole ahead of Alonso, Can he win?

BARCELONA: Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen denied home hero Fernando Alonso a stunning Spanish Grand Prix pole position in April 26, 2008 yesterday to set himself up as favourite for today's race.

The 115,000-strong crowd gave Alonso a standing ovation after Renault's double world champion pulled out all the stops at the Circuit de Catalunya only to be pipped by the Finn in the dying seconds by 0.091.

The pole was championship leader Raikkonen's first of the season and the 15th of his Formula One career.

It was also the first time the sport has had two champions together on the front row since Ferrari's Michael Schumacher retired in 2006.Read More

Stay tune and find out today race in Spanish Grand Prix.

Raikkonen fastest in practice for Spanish Grand Prix

BARCELONA: Ferrari’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen made a strong start to Formula One’s European season by dominating the Spanish Grand Prix free practice on April 25, 2008 yesterday.

The Finn, championship leader after the opening three long-haul races, set a best time of 1:20.649 in the morning and then topped the afternoon timesheets in 1:21.935.

His Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, who scored his first points of the season when he won the previous race in Bahrain, was second fastest on a sunny morning but only fifth in the later session. Read More

Hamilton abuse prompts anti-racism campaign

BARCELONA: Formula One's governing body launched an anti-racism campaign on Thursday at the Spanish Grand Prix circuit where McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was abused in February.

“With the support of the Formula One community, the launch of the EveryRace campaign sends a message that discrimination and prejudice can have no place in sport or society,” The International Auto-mobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement.Read More

Kimi Raikkonen will win in Spanish Grand Prix ?

World champion Kimi Raikkonen believes his Ferrari team are set to cement their recent resurgence by winning this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

Not only the Kimi Raikkonen and his team-mate Brazilian Felipe Massa to stand good chance of winning, but they know McLaren, for whom Briton Lewis Hamilton won in Melbourne, are set to fight back.

That's why it's very important to collect as many points as possible in every single race. We have so far to go for we win the title

Raikkonen is on 19 points with Nick Heidfeld on 16 and Hamilton on 14. Keep reading

Raikkonen and Massa are the favourites.

The Star Sports reported that former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher tips Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa as favourites to win next week's Spanish Grand Prix.

The former Ferrari driver said on his homepage after the end of test drives in Barcelona yesterday evening the Italian team had a slight advantage going into the race on April 27.

Three teams - Ferrari, McLaren-Mercedes and BMW-Sauber - would be fighting for the championship, which “is good for the sport,” he said.

Schumacher, 39, a seven-time world champion, has been acting as adviser for Ferrari since retiring at the end of the 2006 season.

Yesterday, he took part in test drives in Ferrari's F2008 car at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.

The Spanish Grand Prix will be the fourth of the season. Raikkonen leads the drivers' championship on 19 points, ahead of Nick Heidfeld (BMW) on 16 and Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) on 14.

BMW (30) lead the constructors' championship, ahead of Ferrari (29) and McLaren Mercedes (28).

The Champ is Ferrari Felipe Massa

Massa claims first win of the season in Ferrari 1-2 finish

Brazilian Felipe Massa stormed to victory here yesterday for his second successive victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix and answer his mounting bank of critics as his Ferrari team celebrated a comfortable one-two with Kimi Raikkonen finishing second.

The 26-year-old Latin American, who had failed to score a point after an error-strewn performance in both opening races, came home as a comfortable winner ahead of his team-mate defending drivers’ world champion Finn Rakkkonen.

They came home first and second ahead of third-placed Pole Robert Kubica of BMW, who had started from the first pole position of his career, and his team-mate German Nick Heidfeld.Read more from Star Sports

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McLaren-Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica or Ferrari’s Felipe Massa as they are the top three pole position.

Star report

POLAND'S Robert Kubica took his and BMW Sauber's first pole position at the Bahrain Grand Prix yesterday.

The 23-year-old from Krakow denied Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa the top spot with a final flying lap of 1:33.096 right at the end of qualifying at the Sakhir desert circuit.

“Fantastic Robert, first pole for our team. Thank you,” said an emotional team boss Mario Theissen over the car radio as he slowed down.

Brazilian Massa, who won from pole position in Bahrain last year but is still without a point after two races, had dominated Friday's practice and will be looking to revive his title challenge today.

McLaren's 23-year-old championship leader Lewis Hamilton was third fastest and will share the second row with Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Briton Hamilton leads Raikkonen and BMW Sauber's German Nick Heidfeld by three points in the championship.

Kubica's pole followed his front row start in the Australian season-opener and second place in Malaysia.

The first and only Pole to race in Formula One flat-spotted a tyre in his second qualifying run of the final third phase and had suffered a lot of vibration, making the car hard to handle.

“The car was pulling to one side so I was not expecting after this mistake to be on pole,” he said. “But of course I am very happy.”

BMW, overall runners-up last year after McLaren were stripped of all their points for a spying controversy, have set a target of a first race win in 2008 but champions Ferrari and McLaren have remained ahead of the rest so far.

Kubica's pole was the first by a driver from outside those two teams since Spaniard Fernando Alonso for Renault in China in October 2006.

Massa refused to be downcast: “In a way, I'm happy with second,” he said. “I was a little bit unlucky with the traffic in Q3 and was always behind cars and couldn't do very clean laps ... I think we can be very strong tomorrow.”

Hamilton was using the spare chassis after a big crash on Friday and he thanked his team for working through the night to get it ready.

“We would prefer to be on pole but the team have done a great job to recover from the accident, they stayed up all night ... It (the car) was great today,” he said. – Reuters

Times
01 R. Kubica BMW 1:33.096
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:33.123
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:33.292
04 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:33.418
05 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:33.488
06 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:33.737
07 J. Trulli Toyota 1:33.994
08 N. Rosberg Williams 1:34.015
09 J. Button Honda 1:35.057
10 F. Alonso Renault 1:35.115
11 M. Webber Red Bull 1:32.371
12 R. Barrichello Honda 1:32.508
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:32.528
14 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:32.790
15 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:32.915
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:32.943
17 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:33.433
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:33.501
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:33.501
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:33.845
21 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1:34.140
22 T. Sato Super Aguri 1:35.725