Champ Raikkonen races to Malaysian win

SEPANG, Malaysia -- World champion Kimi Raikkonen banished the memory of his disastrous start to the Formula One season by claiming a comfortable victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver cruised home 19.5 seconds ahead of Robert Kubica's BMW Sauber with Heikki Kovalainen finishing third for McLaren.

Lewis Hamilton, winner in Australia, finished fifth behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota after a bungled pit stop cost the Briton a chance of a podium.

Pole-sitter Felipe Massa saw his race end after 30 laps when he beached his Ferrari in the gravel.

"I was able to go much quicker in my in-lap and pass him (Massa)," Raikkonen said. "It was a pretty easy race after the first pitstop.

"We didn't want to risk (a collision) with teammates at the first corner, so I decided to wait for the first pitstop and it worked out perfectly."

The McLaren pair of Kovalainen and Hamilton started from eighth and ninth places after receiving five grid place penalties for causing interference in qualifying, and were never a threat to the Ferraris.

Hamilton, who spent much of the race stuck behind the slower Red Bull of Mark Webber, closed hard behind Trulli but was unable to pass the Italian.

BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld was sixth and set the fastest lap, while Webber held on for seventh in front of Renault's Fernando Alonso.

The win lifted Raikkonen to 11 championship points, just three behind Hamilton. It also helped Ferrari recover from the disappointment of last weekend's season opener in Melbourne where the team gained just one point and both cars failed to finish.

Heidfeld was also on 11 points, one ahead of Kovalainen.

It was the first time BMW Sauber had collected successive second places, after Heidfeld in Australia.

"I thought McLaren would be stronger," Kubica said. "We did the best pitstop and then kept the engine fresh for the next Grand Prix, which is important.

"I was just cruising at the end."

Kovalainen acknowledged third place was as much as McLaren could have hoped for after the grid penalties.

"We have to be pleased with the result," Kovalainen said. "After yesterday's penalties it was going to be a hard day for us."

The race had a clean start through the first corner, where Trulli and Heidfeld -- who started third and fifth respectively -- tangled, costing them both several spots. Williams' Nico Rosberg collided with Toyota's Timo Glock, eliminating Glock from the race while Rosberg was forced to pit for a new front wing.

Hamilton started brightly and was up to fifth by the end of the first lap, settling behind Webber.

However, Hamilton's first pit stop lasted 20 seconds, as mechanics struggled to remove the right front wheel, with large amounts of brake dust being released, demonstrating how hard the Briton had pushed in the early laps.

Raikkonen passed Massa via quicker pit stops, and the Ferrari pair settled ahead of Kubica and Kovalainen. After the first set of pit stops, those four led from Trulli in fifth, Webber in sixth, Hamilton was seventh and Heidfeld eighth.

Massa spun off with 25 laps to go, appearing to throttle out of a corner too early and spinning into a gravel trap.

The loss of Massa, and the demotion of Webber as a result of exiting the pits into traffic, were the only changes among the leaders from then on. E-mail to a friend