Raikkonen sinks McLaren at Spa
September 18th 2007 12:59
Kimi wins at Spa
The Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa cruised ahead to take a dominant one-two victory ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton.
It was an especially important victory for the Finn and his team, after being humiliated by their rival last weekend at Monza, Ferrari’s traditional home grand prix.
For McLaren, it was a case of adding insult to injury, after they were found guilty of espionage and were expelled from this years constructor’s championship, along with a huge $100 million fine.
The result secured Ferrari the constructor’s title, which now excludes McLaren, but the fight for the driver’s title was closed up even further.
Raikkonen sits third, now within 13 points of series leader, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso whittled down the gap to his teammate to two points with his podium.
“A great day!,” said the Finn, “the car worked very well for the whole race: I was quick enough in the first part to control the race after that. It is nice to win here on my favourite track for the third time in a row.”
Ferrari’s other hopeful, Felipe Massa now is 20 points adrift of the title lead, making the Brazilian's task of claiming the crown for the Scuderia impossible but for a bout of extreme misfortune on the behalf of his rivals.
Behind the Ferrari’s and McLarens was BMW’s Nick Heidfeld, who cruised yet again to claim ‘best of the rest’ honours, despite a poor start that dropped him two places.
Williams’ Nico Rosberg put in yet another strong performance to take sixth place and three points.
Mark Webber of Red Bull came home seventh, while Heikki Kovalainen's one-stop strategy netted him the final point for Renault.
BMW’s Robert Kubica battled hard after an engine change relegated him to fourteenth on the grid, however the Pole was only able to manage a disappointing ninth place.
Rounding out the top ten was Toyota’s Ralf Schumacher.
One of the surprise stars was Adrian Sutil, who has already raised eyebrows this year, but armed with the improved Spyker B-Car the German rookie finished 14th, ahead of both Super Aguris.
It was mostly a processional race. The main thrills came from the opening laps, when Alonso mercilessly blocked his teammate, Hamilton, and both Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber’s respective passes on a heavily-fuelled Kovalainen.
With three races remaining, the championship will be going right to the wire.
However, Kimi Raikkonen is still keen to fight till the flag falls for the last time in 2007.
“We are still a long way off in the championship but we are not giving up and we will keep going right to the very end of the championship," he said.
Championship leader, Lewis Hamilton, has seen his lead gradually diminish over the last few grands prix, and now only holds a two-point buffer over his teammate, but is still confident he can emerge victorious.
“The gap between Fernando and myself is now down to two points which is close,” said the 22-year-old,”but I am just going to go all out in the last three races to try and win the Drivers' Championship."
With the ‘stepneygate’ scandal all but put to rest, there is still plenty left in the F1 excitement stakes.
Results
01 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20:39.066
02 F. Massa Ferrari 4.695
03 F. Alonso McLaren 14.343
04 L. Hamilton McLaren 23.615
05 N. Heidfeld BMW 51.879
06 N. Rosberg Williams 1:16.876
07 M. Webber Red Bull 1:20.639
08 H. Kovalainen Renault 1:25.106
09 R. Kubica BMW 1:25.661
10 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:28.574
11 J. Trulli Toyota 1:43.653
12 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1 laps
13 R. Barrichello Honda 1 laps
14 A. Sutil Spyker F1 1 laps
15 T. Sato Super Aguri 1 laps
16 A. Davidson Super Aguri 1 laps
17 S. Yamamoto Spyker F1 1 laps
Did not finish
18 J. Button Honda 8 laps
19 A. Wurz Williams 10 laps
20 D. Coulthard Red Bull 15 laps
21 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 36 laps
22 G. Fisichella Renault 43 laps
Fastest Laps
01 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:48.036
02 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:48.095
03 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:48.182
04 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1:48.215
05 Nick Heidfeld BMW 1:48.663
06 Robert Kubica BMW 1:48.894
07 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:48.990
08 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 1:49.600
09 Nico Rosberg Williams 1:49.769
10 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:50.022
11 Mark Webber Red Bull 1:50.049
12 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:50.678
13 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR 1:50.730
14 Takuma Sato Super Aguri 1:50.886
15 Adrian Sutil Spyker 1:50.902
16 Jenson Button Honda 1:51.141
17 David Coulthard Red Bull 1:51.156
18 Alexander Wurz Williams 1:51.270
19 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri 1:51.391
20 Sakon Yamamoto Spyker 1:51.648
21 Sebastian Vettel STR 1:52.724
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