Raikkonen dashes Hamilton's hopes

SILVERSTONE, England -- Finland's Kimi Raikkonen dashed the ambitions of home hero Lewis Hamilton and further enhanced his own world championship hopes with victory in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday.

Raikkonen never relinquished control in his Ferrari after taking the advantage from pole-sitter Hamilton following the first round of pit stops and finished comfortably clear of reigning world champion Fernando Alonso in his McLaren.

Hamilton, who led off pole under heavy pressure from Raikkonen, lost valuable time with a slow first stop and slipped further back as the McLarens failed to match the pace of the Ferraris.

But he finished third to continue his remarkable record of a podium position in each of his nine starts as a rookie and still leads teammate Alonso by 12 points in the overall standings.

Raikkonen, winner of last week's French Grand Prix, is in third place, just 18 points adrift.

"We had a good car all day and all weekend," said Raikkonen, who was delighted to win at Silverstone after a series of near misses.

His teammate Felipe Massa stalled on the grid and after starting from the rear of the field carved his way through to finish fifth.

Poland's Robert Kubica, who suffered a horrific crash in the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this season, took a strong fourth for BMW.

His teammate Nick Heidfeld of Austria finished sixth ahead of the two Renault's of Finn Heikki Kovalainen and Italian Giancarlo Fisichella.

A record crowd and a host of celebrities had gathered at the former airfield in Northamptonshire to roar 22-year-old sensation Hamilton to his third victory of the season.

He led strongly off pole, expertly blocking Raikkonen, but by the end of his first stint was clearly having trouble with the balance of his car.

A clumsy stop, trying to get away while the lollipop man was still in front of him, cost Hamilton at least a couple of seconds allowing Raikkonen and Alonso to move ahead of him.

"It was a mistake of mine," he admitted. "I tried to push but the whole weekend I was struggling with the balance (of the car), we just did not have the pace of the Ferrraris," he added.

After all the leaders had pitted, Alonso, who had been third before the stops, emerged in the lead and began to establish a gap from Raikkonen and Hamilton, who were now second and third respectively.

Alonso made his second pit stop on the 38th lap and this time it was Raikkonen who benefited.

The Finn stayed on the track until the 43rd lap and when he finally stopped he managed to stay comfortably ahead of the McLaren's of Alonso and Hamilton.

Raikkonen did not let the advantage slip and held off Alonso with relative ease to claim the resurgent Ferrari team's fifth win of the season. E-mail to a friend