Raikkonen delighted with victory
Kimi Raikkonen revealed his delight at opening the defence of his title with a comfortable victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix. Raikkonen, who started from second on the grid, passed team-mate Felipe Massa with an exquisite piece of driving before closing out the race with ease.
Massa, who had started in pole position, span out of contention and into the gravel on turn eight with Ferrari looking almost certain to record a one-two finish.
But the world champion suffered no such problems and says his good start gave him the platform to go on and take the chequered flag at Sepang.
He said: "I got alongside Felipe after I got a bit better start but I thought we don't want to risk between the team-mates in the first corner, and I decided to stay behind and try my move on the first stop and it worked out perfectly.
"We were pretty similar speed-wise, but once he went in my car went better and I was able to go much quicker on my in-lap and pass him.
"After that the car was handling perfectly and I was able to go away.
"It was a pretty easy race from that first pitstop really," he added.
"We had quite a difficult weekend in Australia and we were not 100% sure it was going to be any different here.
"But everything worked perfectly. This is a good start to the season for us and we're in a pretty good position."
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