MOTOR SPORT FORMULA ONE/Spanish Grand Prix:KIMI RAIKKONEN cruised to an untroubled victory at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona yesterday and admitted afterward he could have gone much faster.
"We didn't get the perfect start but it was good enough to stay in front," said a cool Raikkonen afterwards. "For sure we could have run a bit faster but no point to push when you don't need to."
It was another classic case of Raikkonen understatement. The defending champion is not one for the melodramatic. Indeed, he's often not one for much more than an inscrutable shrug and a monosyllabic positive or negative answer but with Raikkonen the case is either black or white.
For him a win is a win, and if he and Ferrari can make it look as drowsily facile as possible then that will do just fine.
Ferrari gave him the perfect tool to bring about sedation at the Circuit de Catalunya, a car that is looking more and more the easy leader of a pack that is otherwise struggling to find a comfort zone at any circuit.
In Bahrain, BMW had briefly threatened with a pole position for Robert Kubica and in the season opener in Australia, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton had looked like continuing his 2007 form with a solid victory in Melbourne.
Since then both teams have waxed and waned, neither finding the sort of definition of pace or reliability to trouble the relentless upswing in performance that Ferrari have brought to the opening rounds of the championship,.
In Spain Raikkonen dominated all weekend long. He snoozed his way through the early practice sessions, but still managed to emerge at the top of the timesheets.
In qualifying Renault's Fernando Alonso threatened to give his adoring home crowd something to shout about when he was momentarily on course for pole position. It was, though, a false impression, the Spaniard running a light fuel load to push himself up the grid in the hope of defending for all he was worth in the race.
Even as the screams of the hordes of Alonso's fans rang around the circuit, Raikkonen was putting together a lap so simply quick that he was on pole before they even had time to catch their breath.
The race was similarly executed. From pole, Raikkonen powered away from the start, only having to briefly defend a move around his outside by team-mate Felipe Massa, who had charged past Alonso in the race for the first corner. Once the champion had shrugged off Massa he was left with little to do except maintain his pace, get through his pit stops with no mishap and drink the celebratory champagne on the podium.
"We had the speed all weekend," the world champion shrugged in the post-race press conference before admitting claiming pole had been crucial to the win. This circuit is very difficult to overtake on and the start is the best place, and if you have a lot of things with the safety car you might be lucky or unlucky, but the best place to try and win is from the front."
The mopping-up process was left to Massa and Hamilton. The Brazilian was in danger in mid-race of letting slip the narrow lead he had over the Briton but in the end, on a circuit he excels at, he avoided any of the errors that characterised his opening two rounds of the campaign and Hamilton had to settle for a lonely third place, though he attempted to put a positive spin on a weekend on which McLaren were thoroughly outclassed.
"It's good to be back and when we qualified fifth we knew it would be very tough to beat the Ferraris," he said. "We had to make a good start and then we might be able to have a good race, and I did that.
"We knew Fernando was a bit lighter so we had an opportunity there and in the end I was able to keep up with Felipe Massa and keep pushing, but they seem a bit better with the tyres so there's room for improvement," he added.
For Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, however, there were no positives. The Finn was airlifted to hospital after a heavy crash on lap 21 when his left front tyre exploded, sending him arrowing off track at 150mph, his McLaren burying itself and him under the protective tyre wall.
The McLaren CEO, Martin Whitmarsh, later explained that Kovalainen had "banged his head and has concussion, so as a precaution will undergo tests. There are no other visible signs of injury, although he says he is aware he has hurt his elbow."
On the cause of the accident he said: "Part of the rim was machined off, potentially by some debris or by something that got lodged inside the wheel. Until we get the data back then we don't really know at this stage."
In truth it was the only real moment of drama at a track that more often than not serves up a dull race.
With the teams camped out in Barcelona during winter testing and also favouring it as their European-season test bed, there is almost nothing they do not know about it. The only vagary is the wind or the calamitous actions of rivals during the heat of battle.
With that in mind the chasing pack can take some comfort that the circus next moves to Istanbul, a track fast becoming a Formula One classic thanks to its fluid corner sequences and undulations. At least there they can hope to make up some ground.
Or not, if Raikkonen is to be believed. "I think our car should be quite strong in Turkey and it is a great circuit. I am looking forward to going there."
Once again Raikkonen states the obvious.
SPANISH GRAND PRIX
(at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona)
1. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1 hour 38 minutes 19.051 seconds
2. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari +00:03.228
3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 00:04.187
4. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 00:05.694
5. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull - Renault 00:35.938
6. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 00:53.010
7. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams - Toyota 00:58.244
8. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 00:59.435
9. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 01:03.073
10. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India - Ferrari 1 lap
Also:11. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1 lap 12. David Coulthard (Britain) RedBull - Renault 1 lap 13. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri - Honda 1 lap r. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams - Toyota 25 laps r. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 32 laps r. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 32 laps r. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 45 laps r. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri - Honda 58 laps r. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 59 laps r. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 60 laps r. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India - Ferrari 65 laps r. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Toro Rosso - Ferrari 65 laps
(KEY: r = retired)
Fastest Lap:Kimi Raikkonen (Finland), 1:21.670, lap 46.
Drivers standings: 1. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 29 points 2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren 20 3. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 19 4. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 18 5. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 16 6. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren 14 7. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 9 8. Mark Webber (Australia) Red Bull 8 9. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams 7 10. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 6 11. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams 5 12. Jenson Button (Britain) Honda 3 13. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso 2 14. Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 0 15. David Coulthard (Britain) Red Bull 0 16. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India 0 17. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Honda 0 18. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 0 19. Takuma Sato (Japan) Super Aguri 0 20. Anthony Davidson (Britain) Super Aguri 0 21. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India 0.
Constructors:1. Ferrari 47 poinst 2. BMW Sauber 35 3. McLaren - Mercedes 34 4. Williams - Toyota 12 5. Toyota 9 6. RedBull - Renault 8 7. Renault 6 8. Honda 3 9. Toro Rosso - Ferrari 2 10. Force India - Ferrari 0 11. Super Aguri - Honda 0.
