Turkish GP: Massa makes it three from three

Sunday 11th May 2008

Felipe Massa scored a hat-trick of Turkish GP victories following a fascinating tactical battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Three of Massa's seven career wins have now come at the Istanbul Park circuit, propelling the Brazilian to within seven points of current Championship leader and Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.

The Finn was forced to settle for third as Hamilton managed to hold off the reigning World Champion over the closing laps to claim the runner-up spot in his McLaren.

However, only McLaren will know whether their gamble to put Hamilton on a three-stopper cost him the victory or secured him second place.

Grand Prix Report
The ambient temperature at the track was an unseasonally low 17C with heavy cloud and a slim chance of rain towards the end of the race. The track was at an equally low 29C.

As the cars formed upon the grid there was an unusually long pause before the red lights went on (and out), but it wasn't long before Heikki Kovalainen's race was heading swiftly downhill. Starting from P2 on the grid, he couldn't match polesitter Felipe Massa's pace away from the line and vainly moved across to the racing line to see Lewis Hamilton and Robert Kubica sweep past him on the outside.

At the same time Kimi Raikkonen, who also started from the dirty side, decided to see if he could find a way down the inside of Kovalainen. It was a risky move for the Ferrari driver because there was nowhere near enough room and as Heikki closed the door he had to stand on the brakes. Even then he didn't make it and his front wing speared into Kovalainen's tyre giving it a slow puncture.

The heavy stop for Raikkonen allowed Kubica and Alonso through and Mark Webber almost got by as well. For Kovalainen, though, it meant an inevitable return to the pits to change tyres and his chance of any points gone.

At least he'd get to race, though, unlike Kazuki Nakajima who was ploughed into by Giancarlo Fisichella. Fisichella simply came into Turn 1 too quickly, braked too late and slammed into the back of the entirely innocent Williams-Toyota driver. Fisichella characterised it as "I did a good start, some other driver closed the door and I couldn't stop."

The Force-India was out on the spot, the third year in a row Fisi's had an accident on the opening lap in Turkey. For his part Nakajima took it very well but it was a mystery that the stewards didn't think it was worth investigating, if only to put on record where Giancarlo thought his braking point might have been.

The Safety Car was instantly dispached to collect the field with the order: Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Kovalainen, Alonso, Raikkonen, Webber, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Coulthard, Trulli, and Button.

Sebastian Vettel continued his run of poor opening lap form and pitted for a rear puncture, while Adrian Sutil needed a new front wing.

We were racing again on Lap 3 and immediately Felipe Massa started collecting Fastest Laps and it looked like this would be the start of another Ferrari demonstration. However by Lap 6, Hamilton was lapping faster than the Ferrari driver and by Lap 7 it was Lewis who had the Fastest Lap with a 1:27.427, the gap between the two just 1.4 seconds.

Kimi Raikkonen made shot work of overtaking Fernando Alonso who eased off the throttle as though he were being lapped to let the Ferrari past.

Felipe and Lewis began to trade Fastest Laps between them as they pulled clear of Robert Kubica in third, with Raikkonen trailing the Pole by a steady second and a half in fourth place. Lewis brought the Fastest Lap time down to 1:26.869 on Lap 12, but a lap later he did a 1:26.951 compared to Massa's 1:26.919. It was all very close. More Fastest Laps from Lewis reduced Massa's lead to just 0.7 of a second at the end of Lap 15.

Fernando Alonso was the first driver to stop at the end of Lap 15, but Hamilton caught a lot of people unawares by pitting at the end of Lap16. By taking on board just 53 litres of fuel in a six-second stop, it looked like the McLaren driver was shaping up for a three-stop race compared to the conventional wisdom of two stops.

It was clear now that McLaren had attempted - and failed - to grab pole position in Qualifying and control the pace of the race from the front.

Massa and Kubica pitted on Lap 19, and though Kimi Raikkonen managed to put in the fastest lap of the race on Lap 20 with a 1:25.506 he was already too far back to get past anyone except third placed Kubica. And so when battle was recommenced on Lap 22, Massa had a 0.8 gap over Hamilton, with Raikkonen 7.7 seconds from Hamilton, but now in front of the BMW-Sauber.

In this stint, though, Hamilton looked a lot quicker than Massa thanks to his much smaller fuel load. The Brit closed surprisingly easily and running down towards the final complex of turns on Lap 24 launched his McLaren up the inside of the Ferrari. Massa moved across to defend the line leaving a car and a half's width through which Hamilton threaded his McLaren. Both were now well off the racing line and Massa had to give way to avoid contact (though they still almost touched wheels).

Hamilton was through and set about establishing a lead. The positions on Lap 25 were now: Hamilton, Massa, Raikkonen, Kubica, Heidfeld, Alonso, Webber (all stopped) followed by Button, Barrichello and Glock (not stopped) Heikki Kovalainen had made it though to 11th place.

On Lap 26 Sebastian Bourdais became the third and final retirement from the race when something broke at the back of his Toro Rosso and the car went straight on into the Turn 10 gravel.

At the front, Hamilton was pumping in some amazing quick laps to establish a gap to Massa
Lap 26: 2.8 gap
Lap 27: 3.8 gap
Lap 28: 4.8 gap
Lap 29: 5.5 gap
Lap 30: 6.3 gap
Lap 31: 7.5 gap

At the end of Lap 32 Hamilton came in for another quick stop and exited behind Kimi Raikkonen in third place. This time round, though, the McLaren driver did not make serious inroads and put pressure on Raikkonen. Further back his Finnish team-mate was having fun battling through the field. On Lap 35 Kovalainen overtook, lost the place then re-overtook Timo Glock in the final sequence of corners and out onto the pit-straight.

Nelson Piquet Junior achieved the same feat with Jenson Button, although Jenson, having successfully defended his 11th place, allowed room for Piquet at the apex and was squashed firmly into the pitlane entrance in return and Piquet took the place.

By Lap 39 the field had been sufficiently spread out that the closest battle was between Raikkonen in P2, 2.5 seconds ahead of Hamilton in P3.

Massa and Kubica pitted for the second and final time at the end of Lap 40, while Raikkonen waited until Lap 43. As Raikkonen went in for his stop, Lewis Hamilton had reduced the defecit to just 1.6 seconds and instantly set about some fast laps. On Lap 44 he was a whole 1.4 seconds quicker than Massa, but Raikkonen was maintaining his pace.

Hamilton had just two laps to establish an advantage because he was in at the end of Lap 45. The McLaren was stationary for just 5.9 seconds and easily cleared the Ferrari of Raikkonen on its return to the track. Massa was already five seconds down the road, though.

The positions on Lap 46 were: Massa, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Kubica, Heidfeld, Alonso, Trulli (not stopped) Webber, Rosberg and Coulthard. From there on in, the front three produced very similar lap times to the flag. Massa had a 5.2 advantage on Lap 46 and Hamilton had 1.4 on Raikkonen. Traffic and slightly faster lap-times reduced Hamilton's lead over Raikkonen to 0.7 by Lap 50, but at the end of the penultimate lap, Lap 57, it was still the same.

Though Kimi could close up through the final two slow corners, the McLaren was always 0.2 faster in the first sector. The final stages of the race, although a stalemate at the front, was illuminated by Heiki Kovalainen producing a series of banzai overtaking moves on Coulthard (Lap 49), Rosberg (Lap 50) after which he had to pit for a splash and dash, ending the afternoon by seeing off Glock around the outside of Turn 3 for P12.

The BMWs had cruised round for most of the race by themselves, Nick Heidfeld having dispensed with Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso after the first round of pit-stops to take 5th place, and Robert Kubica slowly dropping backwards from the battle at the front in 4th. Fernando Alonso had pit-stopped his Renault early, but Mark Webber couldn't take advantage in the Red Bull and the pair ended up 6th and 7th respectively. Nico Rosberg had the satisfcation of 8th place and beating the official Toyota team.

Most satisfied of all, though, was Felipe Massa who took his third successive Turkish GP win from his third successive Turkish GP pole. With a race he rarely does well at (Monaco) coming up next, it couldn't have come at a better time.

Results
01 F. Massa Ferrari 1:26:49.451
02 L. Hamilton McLaren + 3.779
03 K. R�ikk�nen Ferrari + 4.271
04 R. Kubica BMW + 21.945
05 N. Heidfeld BMW + 38.741
06 F. Alonso Renault + 53.724
07 M. Webber Red Bull + 1:04.229
08 N. Rosberg Williams + 1:11.406
09 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1:15.270
10 J. Trulli Toyota + 1:16.344
11 J. Button Honda + 1 laps
12 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 1 laps
13 T. Glock Toyota + 1 laps
14 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 laps
15 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 1 laps
16 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 1 laps
17 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
Did not finish
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 32 laps
19 K. Nakajima Williams + 57 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 58 laps