Red-hot Raikkonen ratchets up pressure on Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen completed his transformation from emerging young star to potential champion here yesterday, finally nailing the victory he had promised to deliver almost from the moment he first sat in a formula one car just over two years ago.

The 23-year-old Finn's success in the Malaysian grand prix recalled his predecessor Mika Hakkinen's maiden win in the 1997 European grand prix, a triumph which triggered a succession of victories the following year and his first world championship.

Having lost the lead in last year's French grand prix with a slide on oil just five laps from the finish, and similarly blown his chance in Melbourne in the season's opener two weeks ago due to a pit-lane speed infringement, Raikkonen was near flawless yesterday.

"I have to say that every driver I have experience of working with was immeasurably boosted by his first race victory," said Ron Dennis, the McLaren chairman who was on the verge of tears as Raikkonen took the chequered flag after his 36th grand prix.

McLaren's resurgence, two weeks after David Coulthard's win in Australia, has also contributed to putting Michael Schumacher and Ferrari under a degree of pressure they have not experienced since Hakkinen won his second world title in 1999.

The newly upgraded McLaren MP4/17-D may technically be a derivation of last year's car, which managed just a single victory in Coulthard's hands at Monaco, but in reality its upgraded specification confirms the team's determination to reinvent itself as a consistent front-runner.

The latest car has different suspension geometry, totally revised aerodynamics with new front and rear wings, revised bodywork, floor and a radical new gearbox. All these, allied to the enormous progress in developing the latest generation of Michelin tyres, have contributed to vaulting McLaren back into contention.

The new rules introduced by the FIA also helped to inject a degree of welcome variety into the equation in Kuala Lumpur. By barring competitors from refuelling between qualifying and the race, teams now have to choose their strategy for the opening phase of the race proper before starting the battle for grid positions. The resultant various strategies saw the Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Jarno Trulli benefiting from a light fuel load and the softer compound Michelin tyre choice to qualify first and second.

Schumacher's Bridgestone-shod Ferrari F2002 was on row two ahead of Coulthard's McLaren with Raikkonen on the inside of the third row. At the start Alonso accelerated into an immediate lead with Coulthard wheel-to-wheel with Schumacher's Ferrari going into the second tight left-hander. As has happened occasionally in the past, when under extreme pressure Schumacher made an elementary driving error.

In his struggle to stay ahead of Coulthard he barged into Trulli's car, a slip which not only delayed him with a pit visit to fit a replacement nose section to his Ferrari but also incurred a drive-through penalty "for causing an avoidable accident". Schumacher later apologised unreservedly to Trulli, perhaps reflecting the needlessness of the shunt as Coulthard ground to a halt with electrical problems mid-way round his third lap.

Alonso led until making the first of his two scheduled stops after 14 of the race's 56 laps. Raikkonen then led up to his own first stop on lap 19, allowing Rubens Barrichello to lead until he stopped on lap 22. Thereafter the Finn was never behind, retaining his lead through his second stop on lap 40 to win by a commanding 39.2sec.

The 21-year old Alonso, meanwhile, became the youngest ever driver to achieve a formula one pole position and the first Spaniard to mount the podium since the Marquis de Portago shared the second-placed Ferrari in the 1956 British GP at Silverstone.

"I made a good start and was coming into the second corner when I saw two cars hitting each other," said Raikkonen. "I was going to stay on the outside, but at the last moment, I saw one car going backwards and managed to switch to the inside. It was the right decision."

Raikkonen finished comfortably ahead of Barrichello with Alonso third ahead of Ralf Schumacher's Williams-BMW FW25 which had climbed through from a disappointing 17th on the grid.

Michael Schumacher stormed back through the field to take sixth place from Jenson Button's BAR-Honda on the final lap. "Let's hope that the next race will be better," he said.

Not if the Flying Finn has anything to do with it.