Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was first across the line at the Turkish GP in his third successive win at the Istanbul circuit, the first race since Super Aguri’s withdrawal from F1.
The race provided plenty of excitement throughout with the first corner dispatching Fisichella, who ran into the back of Nakajima in a spectacular but ultimately stupid smash, and contact between Finish drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen requiring the McLaren driver to make an earlier pit stop.
One of the biggest factors in deciding the final outcome though was McLaren’s decision to run Lewis Hamilton on a three stop strategy due to concerns about his tyres. Although leading at one stage of the race, his extra stop meant he was unable to get past the Ferrari front runner and had to make do with second place.
Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +10
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) +8
Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) +6
Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) +5
Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) +4
Fernando Alonso (Renault) +3
Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) +2
Nico Rosberg (Williams-Toyota) +1
David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault)
Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
Jenson Button (Honda)
Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)
Timo Glock (Toyota)
Rubens Barrichello (Honda)
Nelsinho Piquet (Renault)
Adrian Sutil (Force India-Ferrari)
Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari)
Sebastien Bourdais (STR-Ferrari)
Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota) Accident damage
Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Ferrari) Accident
Next weekend’s Grand Prix, the second in the European leg of the competition, will take place in Turkey. The great news is that Heikki Kovalainen should be fit to drive for McLaren after returning to full training after his high speed smash at Barcelona in April. He still has an FIA medical to pass before being given the go ahead, but seems confident to be given the green light on Thursday.
After Sunday’s poor start to the Bahrain GP by Lewis Hamilton, which he afterwards admitted was his fault for having failed to put the car into start mode, McLaren are looking at their race start procedures to see what can be improved to remove this kind of doubt in future.
It also appears that Hamilton may have hit another car before running into the back of Fernando Alono due to the fact that his nose wing was broken before the impact. While McLaren haven’t ruled out the chance that the wing broke of its own accord, this possibility was downplayed by McLaren COO Martin Whitmarsh as it has not happened before.
With three weeks until the next Grand Prix at Barcelona, Hamilton and McLaren have some time to play with; however, with BMW Sauber looking stronger than ever before, this season is going to be much more than a 2 team competition and if Renault are able to deliver their promised performance improvements in time for Barcelona Hamilton cannot afford to drop too many more points.
