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Kimi Raikkonen got his title defence back on course with a dominant victory for Ferrari in the Malaysian Grand Prix.

With Raikkonen's teammate Felipe Massa spinning out of second place at half-distance, and McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton only managing third and fifth places following their qualifying penalties, Robert Kubica was able to take a career-best second place for BMW Sauber.

Massa's error spoiled what had looked like a dominant one-two finish for Ferrari.

The Brazilian had led from pole at first, fending off a strong challenge from Raikkonen into the first corner. But he was not able to pull away from the world champion, who remained within two seconds of his teammate throughout the first stint.

Raikkonen then went one lap further before his first pitstop, and a superb in-lap allowed him to emerge from the pits just ahead of Massa.

The Finn subsequently pulled away, and was nearly five seconds clear when Massa lost the rear of his car at Turn 8 on lap 30. The Ferrari slid sideways into the gravel, and its rear wheels bogged down, ending Massa's race.

That handed second place to Kubica. The Pole had jumped to third at the start, then had an extremely lonely race - unable to match the Ferraris but comfortably quicker than the rest of the field, including the delayed McLarens. Running longer than Ferrari also allowed Kubica to lead the race for several laps at both pitstops.

Hamilton made the most progress of the two McLarens at first, moving up from ninth on the grid to fifth by the first corner. But he then became stuck behind Mark Webber's Red Bull throughout the opening stint.

He was set to jump ahead of the Australian in the first pitstops, but a problem removing the right front wheel cost Hamilton over 10 seconds and dropped him back into the traffic again.

Kovalainen had no such troubles when he pitted a lap later, and was able to leap from seventh to fourth during the first stops. Massa's departure then elevated the Finn on to the podium for the first time in his McLaren career, albeit a long way behind Raikkonen and Kubica.

Jarno Trulli resisted a late challenge from Hamilton to secure fourth for Toyota. The Italian had lost ground at the first corner after banging wheels with BMW's Nick Heidfeld, but recovered well and was pushing Kovalainen for third during the middle stint.

He could not maintain that pace later on, though, falling away from the Finn and only just holding off the charging Hamilton at the end - the McLaren having finally cleared Webber's Red Bull at the second stops.

Heidfeld also got ahead of Webber during the final pit sequence, and duly took sixth place - setting fastest lap right at the end. Webber fended off Fernando Alonso (Renault) for seventh. Alonso had run very long stints, but lacked the pace on heavy fuel to make significant progress.

David Coulthard (Red Bull) overcame mid-race pressure from Honda's Jenson Button and Renault's Nelson Piquet to take ninth position.

Further back, Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella beat Rubens Barrichello (Honda) to 12th after the Brazilian received a pit lane speeding penalty.

A week after their Melbourne podium finish, Williams had a very poor race. Nico Rosberg tangled with Timo Glock on the first lap, taking the Toyota out of the race and breaking the Williams' front wing.

The German could only recover to 14th, while his teammate Kazuki Nakajima fell off the pace in the closing laps and dropped to last, behind the two Super Aguris.

Toro Rosso also had a very disappointing day. Sebastien Bourdais crashed out on the opening lap, while his teammate Sebastian Vettel was on course for 12th before a late engine failure.

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Don’t for a moment imagine after the Australian Grand Prix that McLaren are going to get complacent, or that Ferrari have let their heads drop. Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo might have said, after engine failures stymied Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa in Melbourne: "It was a healthy dose of humility." But, he also said: "I'm looking forward to Malaysia when I expect to see the real Ferrari."

And new team principal Stefano Domenicali added: "The result speaks for itself. Unfortunately it was a dreadful weekend. Nothing went as planned, so it was difficult. But if you remember, in 2006 we had a similar start with the two non-finishes and we were able to catch up again.

"We weren't phenomenal guys before this race and we are not stupid after it, so we really need to analyse in all the details what has happened. And of course the main concern is to understand the reliability problems. We had two engines fail so this is the main issue to understand. But we need to stay cool, calm and concentrated. We need not be too emotional now because it's very easy to go down that route. We need to stay very rational."

McLaren never underestimate Ferrari, and are not expecting another relatively easy run in Sepang this weekend.

"Every Grand Prix team experiences difficult weekends," said team principal Ron Dennis, who will miss this race because of family commitments in England. "They have got a lot of depth and we are under no illusions that they will come back and will be very competitive in Malaysia and for the rest of the season. All we can do is try and stay focused on our own efforts and that is what we will do.”

The indications in Melbourne were that the two top teams have similar pace. What was also exciting, however, is that Nick Heidfeld’s best race lap for BMW Sauber, who finished second in Albert Park, was only three-tenths of a second off McLaren, and the same as Ferrari.

“We were very pleased with the way things went,” admits technical director Willy Rampf with a big smile. “We did not get the best from the cars on Friday, but we were happy with the set-ups on Saturday and I think that showed in our performance then, and in the race. But we are cautious. Sepang is a different kind of track to Melbourne, so we must wait and see how well it suits our cars.”

Nevertheless, don’t write off the chances of Heidfeld and front-row starting team-mate Robert Kubica, in their F1.08s.

Likewise, Williams are feeling very chipper after Nico Rosberg’s strong performance won him his first F1 podium. The FW30 looked very impressive last weekend, and Kazuki Nakajima also earned points to place the team second overall ahead of BMW Sauber. On the downside, Nakajima will be hamstrung by an automatic ten-place grid demotion at Sepang, a penalty for the Japanese driver colliding with another car in Melbourne.

Then there is Red Bull. Mark Webber got no chance to show what the RB4 could do in the race, and is hungry to correct that this weekend. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso is also out for further points. The Renault R28 may not yet be a front-runner that can challenge McLaren and Ferrari, but the Spaniard’s driving in Australia, especially when he overtook Raikkonen and Kovalainen in one swoop, served as a reminder that he has lost none of his skill or motivation.

“Sepang really is my favourite track,” the former champion says. “I took my first pole position there in 2003 with Renault, and I have won this race twice. It’s a circuit that I enjoy and I always tend to attack a little bit more.”

Renault’s executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds, is not alone in believing that it will take the next two races before the true picture of 2008’s pecking order emerges in Spain.

The challenge of Sepang lies in its fast sweeping turns, especially Turns 4 through to 8, which demand a well-balanced chassis. Good traction is also important, especially on the exit of Turn 9, the tight left hander. The opening combination of Turns 1 and 2 is also a difficult challenge for the drivers, but they get compensated by Turn 14 which demands genuine skill with its tightening entry which is approached under braking.

The high ambient temperatures also place a premium on adequate cooling, and the track is tougher on tyres than Melbourne. Bridgestone’s offering in Malaysia will be the medium and hard compounds, as opposed to the soft and medium used in Australia. That, and the ban on traction control, will force drivers to look after their rear tyres, which already tend to wear quickly here. Throw in the changes to the electronic engine braking systems, which have tended to make the cars trickier to handle under braking, and we could have another race like Melbourne with drivers getting caught out by mistakes.

As a subtle warning to the opposition Dennis added, in reference to Lewis Hamilton after Australia: “He was very fresh, and he was very comfortable. And he was saving the engine. It was very easy! I think we have shown we have a very competitive car, so we will go to Malaysia with a very positive mood.”

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