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Kimi: I knew Ferrari had the pace
Kimi Raikkonen was alwaysconfident Ferrari would come out on top against McLaren at theMalaysian GP - in which the Finn got his title challenge back on trackwith a comfortable victory.
Raikkonen crossed the line 18.5 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica'sBMW after 56 laps of racing in Sepang, with Heikki Kovalainen's McLarena distant third some 38 seconds back.
Lewis Hamilton finished fifth to see his lead at the top of thedrivers' standings cut to three points, after his season-openingtriumph in Australia last weekend.
The two McLarens were hampered from the outset by a five-placegrid penalty picked up on Saturday for impeding Nick Heidfeld andFernando Alonso. But the Ferraris had proved much the stronger in anycase, outpacing their rivals for most of free practice and qualifying.
Raikkonen, who finished eighth in Melbourne after his enginefailed in the latter stages of that race, was not the least bitsurprised that a McLaren threat failed to materialise.
"No, I think it's been the same all weekend," he said.
"I already said in Australia that our speed should be fine. Whenyou start behind someone, as in Australia, you can never use your ownspeed.
"Australia is not exactly a normal circuit, so sometimes you get slightly wrong results there.
"Last year we were much faster than everybody there, and coming here we were not - so it's a the opposite now.
"I think the next race can be different again, so we need towait and see - and after a few races we will get a clearer picturewhere we are exactly."
Raikkonen hit the front when he came out ahead of team-mate andpole position man Felipe Massa after the first round of pit stops.
The Brazilian subsequently span out of the race, allowing the 28-year-old to cruise to the chequered flag.
"Once he pulled in, my car just got so much quicker - and I wasable to go more than half-a-second faster on my in-lap," he added.
"It was enough. We knew that it was going to be close, and it worked out perfectly.
"Once I was in front of him, the car was much better in the second stint - and I was able to pull away."
Raikkonen trailed Massa by nearly half-a-second in qualifying -but the Finn was never worried his team-mate would have the edge in therace.
"Felipe has been fast. But like I said from last year, qualifying has not really been the strongest point," he said.
"Again we had a good Q2; then the tyres didn't work as well in the final qualifying.
"That was a bit disappointing, but we knew that the car would be strong in the race and we would stop one lap later.
"We put a lot of effort on that, and it worked out well."
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Post time 24-3-2008 10:57 AM
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