That left Bourdais – now lying a superb fourth following Barrichello's penalty – being chased down by a pace-setting
McLaren and a
Renault and
Ferrari driven by the sport's past two world champions in his maiden grand prix with eight laps left on the board. With Alonso having his hands full in keeping Kovalainen behind him, however, the Frenchman was afforded some welcome breathing space, but after soaking up the pressure beautifully and having driven his heart out all afternoon, a Ferrari engine failure with just three laps to go shattered the multiple Champ Car champion's dreams of scoring a handful of points on his top flight debut.
That was not the only Ferrari engine to let go on the day, though, as Raikkonen – who had dropped increasingly back away from the pack with a rough-sounding F2008 – parked his car at the entrance to the pit-lane in the race's dying stages, in a similar position to where he had drawn to a halt with fuel pump failure during qualifying. With two Ferrari engine failures in one race, whisperings about Maranello's occasionally fragile reliability in winter testing re-surfaced once more, leaving the team to walk away from the season-opener with
nul points in the bag from a troubled weekend and Raikkonen's fastest lap of the race some half a second adrift of the McLaren pair's quickest efforts.
The final drama came as Kovalainen succeeded in finding a way past Alonso for fourth place on the penultimate lap, but when the unfortunate Finn accidentally hit the pit-lane speed limiter whilst attempting to tear off a visor strip on the pit straight, his Spanish rival darted back past again. No doubt the Renault star had a wry smile on his face as he shot by the car he had been driving last year, turning Ron Dennis' brief moment of elation into instant disappointment.
