Formula One news
Raikkonen storms to Spanish victory
27 April 2008 / Results / PhotosKimi Raikkonen stormed to victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, starting from pole position and never looking back. The Finn took his second win of the season to extend his championship lead to nine points. Massa finished second and Hamilton third, while local hero Fernando Alonso's hopes went up in smoke with an engine failure.
Fernando Alonso slipped off track on the parade lap and paid for dirtying his tyres as Felipe Massa got ahead of him at the start to follow Kimi Raikkonen into the first corner. Lewis Hamilton passed Kubica to take fourth.
Raikkonen looked comfortable up front but his efforts were for nothing when Sutil crashed into Vettel and the safety car was deployed. The race resumed on lap four as Nelson Piquet went off track and fell back through the field before. As he recovered and tried to make his way back up the field Piquet came together with Bourdais and ended both of their races.
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Fernando Alonso was the first of the front-runners to pit from third place, but only two laps before Felipe Massa, three before Raikkonen and four before Hamilton and Kubica. It was then that McLaren encountered a major fright as Heikki Kovalainen's front left tyre suddenly deflated in the middle of the 150mph turn nine, sending the Finn head-first into the tyre barrier.
The safety and medical cars were immediately deployed and it took twenty minutes to extract the McLaren from the five-deep tyre wall and get Kovalainen to the medical centre. The Finn managed to give a thumbs up to the concerned crowd as he was stretchered off and after initial examination in the medical centre revealed no major injuries beyond concussion, Kovalainen was airlifted to a Barcelona hospital.
Meanwhile on track Nick Heidfeld served a ten-second stop-go penalty after he was forced to pit during the safety car period for fuel and Fernando Alonso's hopes of a dream result in front of his home crowd ended with engine failure while he was running fifth.
Having a far less eventful race out front, Kimi Raikkonen continued to lea team mate Felipe Massa with Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica holding on in third and fourth with just 15 laps of the 66-lap race remaining. Webber was up to fifth ahead of Button and Nakajima who both benefited from the safety car period.
Raikkonen went on to take his second win of the season and extend his championship lead to nine points over Lewis Hamilton who ended up third, behind Felipe Massa. Robert Kubica drove another strong race for BMW to finish fourth while Mark Webber proved Red Bull's pace was no flash in the pan to finish fifth.
Jenson Button made the most of circumstances to bring his Honda home in sixth ahead of Kazuki Nakajima, who took another two points for Williams. Jarno Trulli took the final point in eighth.
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