Zoom A comfortable second win of the year

The race result may not show it, but Kimi Raikkonen dominated the Spanish Grand Prix from the pole position to take his second win of the season and to further extend his championship lead. Raikkonen’s win, the 17th of his career, continued the now eight year run at Circuit de Catalunya that has seen the pole-sitter claim the race victory.

There was plenty of drama, if not much passing during the 66-lap event, as Raikkonen launched his Ferrari from the pole ahead of Felipe Massa in the sister F2008 who got the jump on front-row starter Fernando Alonso. From that point onwards the gap between the two Ferraris fluctuated between two and four seconds, but the championship leader never really came under any threat from his team-mate.

Raikkonen took the chequered flag 3.2s ahead of Massa while Lewis Hamilton had a solid error-free run to third position. The result moves the Australian Grand Prix winner back into second in the championship on a weekend McLaren could not fight for the win. There was however great drama for Heikki Kovalainen who briefly took over the lead ahead of the first round of pit stops. On lap 23 the MP4-23 suffered a front left wheel failure that sent the Finn across the gravel trap at turn nine at almost unabated speed, burying most of the car in the tyre barrier.

The safety car was deployed as the medical team attended to Kovalainen, but thankfully it seems that the Finn does not have any serious injuries.

Back on track and Robert Kubica had a solid run in his BMW Sauber from fourth position on the grid to fourth position in the race. The Pole lost out to Hamilton off the line while team-mate Nick Heidfeld meanwhile was the latest victim of the badly thought out rules that govern this sport. With Kovalainen receiving treatment track-side and the safety car circulating on track, the German racer was unfortunate enough to require a pit stop for fuel. With the pits closed, Heidfeld was forced to pit from fifth position and as a result incurred a ten second stop and go penalty that effectively ended his race there and then.

Mark Webber ran well to take fifth position and another points-paying result for Red Bull Renault while team-mate David Coulthard had an eventful Grand Prix. Starting 17th, the Red Bull veteran was rammed on lap one by an out-of-control Adrian Sutil, battled on and then was later hit from behind by Timo Glock. With an extra unscheduled stop for a slashed left rear tyre, Coulthard did well to finish 12th.