Raikkonen dominated the Spanish Grand Prix

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.

Alonso started second, but was immediately jumped by Massa at the start. Running a short first stint the Renault star pitted on lap 15 of the race. Exiting the pits Alonso found himself behind Barrichello who at the time was on a long first stint and lapping two seconds slower than Alonso was capable. Following the end of the first round of stops, Alonso had lost position to Hamilton, Kubica and Heidfeld. It would matter little as on lap 35 whilst running fifth, the Renault V8 failed. While Alonso had a strong race Nelson Piquet did not. A trip through the gravel early on was followed by a rash move down the inside of Sebastien Bourdais putting himself and the unfortunate Toro Rosso driver out of the race. The second Toro Rosso was eliminated on lap one as Sutil barged his way into Coulthard and spun. Sebastian Vettel rounded the turn and had no option but to crash into his countryman.

There was plenty of bad luck around today, but the good luck seems to have fallen on Kovalainen who has escaped serious injury after a heavy crash.

1º Raikkonen Ferrari 1:38:19.051
2º Massa Ferrari a 3.228
3º Hamilton McLaren a 4.187
4º Kubica BMW Sauber a 5.694
5º Webber Red Bull a 35.938
6º Button Honda a 53.010
7º Nakajima Williams a 58.244
8º Trulli Toyota a 59.435
9º Heidfeld BMW Sauber a 1:03.073
10º Fisichella Force India F1 a 1 vueltas.
11º Glock Toyota a 1 vueltas.
12º Coulthard Red Bull a 1 vueltas.
13º T. Sato Super Aguri a 1 vueltas.