Spanish Grand Prix

Apr 27, 5:34 PM EDT
Raikkonen's win in Spanish GP hands Ferrari control in chase
By PAUL LOGOTHETIS AP Auto Racing Writer
AP Photo/Manu Fernandez
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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) -- Kimi Raikkonen drove Ferrari to its third straight Formula One victory, winning the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday to put the Italian team in control of the championship race.
The 28-year-old Finn won his 17th race by 3.228 seconds ahead of teammate Felipe Massa of Brazil. Raikkonen was second to Massa at Bahrain three weeks ago after winning the Malaysian GP last month.
Raikkonen led from start to finish for the sixth time to put him nine points ahead of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton atop the drivers standings and lift Ferrari into the constructors lead after four races.
Ferrari's one-point effort at the season-opening Australian GP in Melbourne - its worst start in 16 years - is now a distant memory.
"It would be hard to do better than this," said Raikkonen, who matched former driver Mika Hakkinen of Finland with 51 career top-three finishes. "We are leading both championships, which I am happy about. The whole weekend went well."
Hamilton placed third, but the McLaren team was focused on a violent crash that sent Heikki Kovalainen to a hospital. A likely wheel rim failure caused the Finnish driver's front-left tire to explode and his car to fly into the side wall at 150 mph. It took at least 10 minutes for the track's medical team to remove Kovalainen from the wrecked car, which was missing half its front.
Kovalainen was shaken, but medical scans showed no injuries.
"(Heikki) is safe and well," McLaren team principal Ron Dennis said. "He has no broken bones and CT scans performed at the hospital confirm that he has no head injuries, and the team is optimistic that he will make a full recovery over the next few days."
Hamilton overcame a career-worst 13th-place finish at Bahrain to get back into the points. The Briton is convinced McLaren has the car to compete with Ferrari.
"For sure, you could say it was a surprise (to finish third) because they were very quick. They just have the slight edge for the moment," Hamilton said.
Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber was nearly 6 seconds back in fourth and Mark Webber of Red Bull rounded out the top five. Jenson Button of Honda was sixth, followed by Kazuki Nakajima of Williams and Jarno Trulli of Toyota in the final positions to earn points.
Raikkonen, who also won here in 2005, leads the overall standings with 29 points. After Hamilton, Kubica is next with 19, one more than Massa.
Raikkonen topped both of Friday's practice sessions before taking his 15th career pole. That makes it eight straight winners here to have won from the pole.
"You know the chance to win is very small ... but I was pretty much sure that unless something happened, it would be very difficult to win the race," Massa said. "It's very important to bring home eight points and make another step forward in the championship that we know is quite long."
Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso of Renault, who started second, withdrew with engine problems after 34 laps.
"The motor broke, I think," said Alonso, who won his home race two years ago. "It's tough because we're here in Spain. But I think in the next race we can do a better performance."
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