Raikkonen Leads Ferrari To This Season's Second One-Two Finish

As light dawned upon the Circuit de Catalunya on April 27, 2008, a few questions crept into everyone's mind. How heavy on fuel was Alonso? Would everyone see red, or would another dark horse emerge? Would Lewis repeat his mistakes from Bahrain? And just as importantly, how would the driver's standings look by day's end?

Even before the lights went green, Alonso's trek around the Spanish circuit almost ended in disaster. Yet, just like the questions, this was soon forgotten. As the lights begun to light up, spectators held their breath as their "hometown" hero, sitting in second, could very well win the race. Quite possibly, for the last time, the F1 fans would witness 22 medium-tyre shod cars erupt in anger and begin the first lap of this Spanish duel.

Yet, this was today. Not Turkey, nor Monaco, nor any other races where Super Aguri may no longer line up on the grid. As in the past, the outcome of the race seemed to be decided on the very first lap. Felipe Massa, third on the grid, managed to fly past Alonso and hold the position, and thus engineer the run towards a one-two finish.

The Tifosi, hoping for such a magnificent finish, seemed to ask themselves as to who may take the crown on this Sunday. Force India’s Adrian Sutil and the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel were not as lucky, and became involved in a first-lap incident that resulted in an early deployment of the Safety Car. 

Under the caution yellow, the top-three positions were made up of Kimi, Felipe, and Lewis, who had made a jump on Robert Kubica. Heikki Kovalainen was sixth in the second McLaren, hoping for a failure of one of the cars ahead.

While the top runners were running away with the race, and almost hoping to settle their differences in the pits, the drivers further down the grid were battling with each other for precious points on the track. On the seventh lap, Nelson Piquet's race came to an end. Renault’s promising weekend seemed to unravel on lap five; having dropped to 18th from 10th position, by running wide on turn four, Nelson Piquet attempted an overly optimistic move on Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais for position, resulting in a collision and in turn, the retirement of both

The safety car session on the first lap may have been responsible for Alonso lasting on his initial fuel load, and it was not until lap 16 that he pulled into the pit stop.  The theory of the Spaniard running on empty may have been blown out of the water, as Massa pulled in for a pit stop on lap 19, followed by Kimi on lap 20, and both Hamilton and Kubica on lap 21.

All that action left the remaining Finn in P1, but only for a short time. Heikki's race came to a sudden and dramatic end shortly thereafter. In an accident reminiscent of both Michael Schumacher’s 1999 crash at Silverstone, in which the German broke both legs, and Hamilton’s Nurburgring qualifying shunt of last year.

Heikki's car ripped into a track barrier, and the Finn emerged from the car not of his own strength, but seemingly with minor injuries. Following what Martin Whitmarsh described as the failure on the left-front wheel rim, which caused the tire to collapse. 

As the marshals looked after the McLaren driver, the safety car was deployed for a period of time lasting 13-minutes. The lengthy time period proved costly to Heidfeld, who had to pit for refuelling before the pits were open, and was handed a 10-second stop and go penalty for it. Honda’s Rubens Barrichello also ran into trouble after a brush with Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella at pit exit, causing him to lose his front wing and forced an unscheduled additional stop, and as result, his early retirement from the race two laps later.

The Barrichello incident seemed to matter very little to the audience; however, their mood seemed to deflate shortly thereafter as the remaining Renault pulled over on the side of the track. The Renault symphony came to a crashing halt as the Spaniard's engine expired, followed by Rosberg’s on lap 41. 

No further incidents would be recorded until the almost foreseeable incident involving Red Bull's David Coulthard. David's complaints of being the target of many younger drivers were backed up as he was victimized in his fourth race of the year. Timo Glock and David were lucky, the German emerged with a damaged nose, while the Scotsman had to pit for a new rear tire.

This minor incident did not affect Ferrari's overall domination of the weekend. At the chequered flag, Raikkonen crossed the line 3.2 second ahead of his wingman, followed by Hamilton just 0.9 seconds further back.

As Kubica crossed the line in fourth, some were left to argue that, judging by Hamilton's staggering pace in the final laps of the race, the Britton could have very well have challenged for position had the race been longer. The arguments would remain just that, and what seemed to matter was Webber's season-best result for Red Bull of fifth.

While not challenging for position, the dark horse of the race seemed to be Jenson Button, who grabbed Honda’s first 2008 points with a sixth place, ahead of Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima, and Trulli in eighth.

Following this Sunday’s Grand Prix, Raikkonen's standing in the driver's championship reflect the impressive lead he generated by the end of the Spanish race. The results in Spain leave Raikkonen with a comfortable nine-point cushion over Hamilton in second (29-20), while things behind the Brit look very tight. Kubica is third with 19, one point ahead of Massa, and three in front of Heidfeld. Kovalainen is sixth with 14.