Kimi Raikkonen said his path to victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix was “pretty easy” once he took the lead from team-mate Felipe Massa at the first round of pit stops.
Raikkonen stayed out one lap longer than Massa and used a blisteringly quick in-lap to leapfrog the Brazilian.
Thereafter he pulled away into a race of his own, cruising to his second Sepang triumph and getting his 2008 title campaign underway in earnest.
“We were pretty similar speed-wise [in the first stint],” he said.
“Once Felipe went in my car got much better, because when you are one or two seconds behind someone [the turbulence] makes a massive difference.
“I was able to go much quicker on my in-lap and I was able to pass him.
“And after that when I was running on my own in free air the car was handling perfectly and I was able to pull away.
“It was a pretty easy race from that point on.”
Despite starting from the dirty side of the grid, Raikkonen made a better getaway than Massa and contemplated a passing move into the first corner, before deciding that discretion was the better part of valour and tucking in behind his team-mate.
“I got a bit better start than Felipe and got alongside him, but I knew that we were running one lap longer and didn’t want a risky situation between team-mates in the first corner,” the Finn explained.
“Maybe if I had pushed harder I could have made a pass, but I decided to stay behind and try my move at the pit stop, and it worked out perfectly.”
Massa had looked like the man to beat after taking pole by nearly half a second – but Raikkonen claimed he was always confident he would have the race pace to challenge for victory.
“I think we still sometimes have difficulties to get the qualifying right,” he said.
“It was good in Q2 but in the last part we couldn’t find the grip from the tyres.
“We knew we were running one lap longer so I wasn’t really panicking.
“The car usually has been much stronger for us in the race than in qualifying, so as long as we got close I thought we’d have a good chance to pass him, and it worked out at the first pit stop already.
“The car was very good all weekend but sometimes on new tyres it’s difficult to get the best out of it.
“But the team did a great job this weekend."
Raikkonen leaves Malaysia just three points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, while Massa has yet to get his name on the score board.
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Its shame what happend to Lews on Saturday that he had be place down few starting places. But i am sure he will do well in rest the races, he did well last race and i am sure we will see more.
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