Relief as McLaren takes win

The team last won a race in Malaysia last year, Raikkonen's first F1 victory, and while it went on to notch up a number of second place positions that year, it failed to step to the top of the podium.

This year has been a disaster for the team with an upturn in form only coming with introduction of the MP4-19B at the French Grand Prix. While the car was certainly an improvement on its predecessor, it failed to deliver the results, until today.

"It's very good for the team and for me after such a difficult season," Raikkonen said. "Now we have some speeds and results with the 19B. We've been struggling to find it, but now we've got what we deserved and hopefully we can keep it up and challenge for the world title next year."

Team boss Ron Dennis was elated, particularly given the team's problems in qualifying on Saturday when a mistake by Raikkonen relegated him to 10th on the grid.

"Obviously I'm delighted, it's very emotional, but on the day he (Raikkonen) delivered," Dennis said. "So many issues we handled on the cars, it's sensational stuff winning that. We're here to win only.

"We really sacrificed the performance yesterday to have the speed today. At the end of the day it was all about yesterday. It was very frustrating we lost 1.2s at the Bus Stop in his (Raikkonen's) qualifying lap which could have put him 4th on grid. Today he had an impact with one of the Saubers that damaged the floor which we had to sort out and accommodate. At the end of the day he did a great job."

Things weren't so rosy for team-mate David Coulthard who endured an eventful race before rescuing seventh spot and two additional points for McLaren.

"It was a good result for the team today" the Scot said. "From my side it was quite an eventful race having lost a tyre before going in for my first pitstop from third position. I had a lot of work to do to get back in the points. I had managed to move up to be in eighth position when I lost my front wing, colliding with Klien. So all in all seventh place is a reasonable result from the day"