Raikkonen wins in Malaysia to revive F1 title chase
March 23, 2008
SEPANG, Malaysia (AP) -Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won the Malaysian Grand Prix and revived Formula One's title race Sunday, setting up an expected season-long struggle with McLaren.
Raikkonen had moved ahead of pole-sitting teammate Felipe Massa after the first set of pitstops at Sepang and cruised to victory, 20 seconds ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, with McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen a further 19 seconds back in third.
Massa spun off on the 31st lap under no pressure while running in second place.
The McLaren pair of Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton started from eighth and ninth places after receiving five grid place penalties for causing interference in qualifying, and were never a threat to the Ferraris.
Hamilton was further compromised by a poor first pit stop, spent much of the race stuck behind the slower Red Bull of Mark Webber, and finished fifth, closing hard behind Toyota's Jarno Trulli but unable to pass the fourth-placed Italian.
BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was sixth and set the fastest lap, while Webber held on for seventh in front of Renault's Fernando Alonso.
The win lifted Raikkonen to 11 championship points, just three behind Hamilton, who won the season-opening race in Australia last week. It also helped Ferrari recover from the disappointment of last weekend's season opener in Australia where the team gained just one point and both cars failed to finish.
Heidfeld was also on 11 points, one ahead of Kovalainen.
The race had a clean start through the first corner, where Trulli and Heidfeld - who started third and fifth respectively - tangled, costing them both several spots. Williams' Nico Rosberg collided with Toyota's Timo Glock, eliminating Glock from the race while Rosberg was forced to pit for a new front wing.
Hamilton started brightly and was up to fifth by the end of the first lap, settling behind Webber.
However Hamilton's first pit stop lasted 20 seconds, as mechanics struggled to remove the right front wheel, with large amounts of brake dust being released, demonstrating how hard the Briton had pushed in the early laps.
Raikkonen passed Massa via quicker pit stops, and the Ferrari pair settled ahead of Kubica and Kovalainen. After the first set of pitstops, those four led from Trulli in fifth, Webber in sixth, Hamilton was seventh and Heidfeld eighth.
Massa spun off on the 31st lap, appearing to throttle out of a corner too early and spinning into a gravel trap.
The loss of Massa, and the demotion of Webber as a result of exiting the pits into traffic, were the only changes among the leaders from then on.
Wimmer wins Nashville Nationwide race
SportingNews.com
LEBANON, Tenn. -- Kyle Busch's loss was Scott Wimmer's gain.
Busch dominated Saturday's Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway but lost control of his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota off Turn 4 after leading 125 of the first 162 laps.
That handed the lead to Richard Childress Racing's Clint Bowyer, but RCR teammate Wimmer passed Bowyer for the lead with 20 laps to go to notch his first win in nearly five years.
Wimmer is also the first non-Sprint Cup driver to win a Nationwide race this season and the first since Jason Leffler won at O'Reilly Raceway Park last July.
"Stepping down and running a partial schedule in the Nationwide Series is not what I want to be doing, but those are the cards that are dealt to me right now," Wimmer said. "I'm with a great team with Richard Childress Racing and have great teammates. You can struggle in a single-car operation or a lower-budget team, but that's not where any driver wants to be.
"I'm just trying to do the best I can for Richard right now, and hopefully, it'll fall that someday I can get back to racing Nationwide full time or Sprint Cup full time. But right now, I'm having a good time."
RCR has won the last two Nationwide Series races and swept the top three positions in last weekend's Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bowyer finished second Saturday, with the third RCR driver, Stephen Leicht, finishing 12th.
Wimmer, who helped RCR's No. 29 Chevrolet team to the owners championship last year, was winless in his last 57 races in the series and last scored a win in the series July 26, 2003 at Pikes Peak International Raceway.
Behind Wimmer and Bowyer were Carl Edwards in third, Brad Keselowski in fourth and Kelly Bires in fifth.
Sixth through 10th were David Stremme, Denny Hamlin, Cale Gale, David Reutimann and Bobby Hamilton Jr.
Reutimann was running third when he had to pit for fuel with eight laps remaining. Wimmer, too, was close on gas, as his engine sputtered while he did celebratory burnouts.
"Extremely close," Wimmer's crew chief, Pat Smith, said. "We knew when that last caution came out, immediately when we went back [to green], I told Scott to start saving fuel then because I knew there was a chance [we were going to run out]. We were three laps short."
Busch led the first 61 laps after winning the pole by more than two-tenths of a second earlier in the day.
He lost the lead in the pits, with Bowyer's crew getting the No. 2 out first on Lap 62. Busch whipped into the lead two laps after the green flag waved, but Bowyer stayed with Busch and then passed him for the top spot on Lap 66.
Bowyer's Chevrolet was able to stay out front for 29 laps before Busch's car ran him back down, and he retook the lead on Lap 100.
Busch has now led 345 laps this season, yet is still without a victory.
"Just a stupid mistake on the driver's part," Busch said as he headed to his hauler.