Brazilian’s Ferrari Leaves F-1 Field In Dust In Turkish GP

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Starting from the pole in a Ferrari that was clearly superior to the McLaren Mercedes cars meant that Felipe Massa led all but three of the 58 laps to win the Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park track Sunday.
“I love the track,” Massa said. “I love the place, and here is where my career made a switch (last year) and I started to win races and fight with the front runners. It is a very special place for me.”
As the track is seldom used, the dirty side of the grid off the racing line is a real disadvantage. Lewis Hamilton qualified his McLaren second but lost the place right after the start to Kimi Raikkonen, who had lined up third on the grippy side of the track.
The Ferraris were on medium-compound Bridgestones, which, while not as good on race pace as the hards that the McLarens were on, probably gave a tiny but crucial advantage at the getaway.
And that was it. Raikkonen’s Ferrari was as fast or faster than Massa’s, but he had little hope of passing so just hung onto second place.
Hamilton settled into third place.
Fernando Alonso qualified fourth but managed to immediately get passed by the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. He leapfrogged by both of them in the first round of pit stops to reclaim fourth place.
A burst of drama exploded into the race on lap 43 along with Hamilton’s right-front tire.
With a large layer of tread flaying around, Hamilton was lucky his car wasn’t damaged. He arrived in the pits just as Alonso was leaving (no 10 extra seconds of delay as in Hungary) rejoined the race and placed fifth.
Thus, for only the second time in his F-1 career Hamilton did not have a podium finish. Bridgestone’s initial investigations did not reveal what caused the tire problem.
Once again, BMW Sauber was the best of the rest as Heidfeld grabbed fourth place. Kubica’s strategy of a short first stint on soft tires in order to attack the front-runners didn’t work out. He faded to eighth.
Heikki Kovalainen scored points for the sixth time in seven starts as he brought his Renault home sixth. He said that this race finally proved that the updates Renault introduced two races ago are a step forward. As he did in Hungary, Nico Rosberg finished seventh in his Williams Toyota.
After 12 of 17 races, Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen and Alonso each have three victories.
Had Hamilton finished third and Alonso fourth, which would have happened without the tire woes, Hamilton would have extended his championship lead to eight points. Instead, Alonso is only five points behind.