It was a dominant display by Scuderia Ferrari during the Turkish GP as Massa and Raikkonen crossed the finish line first and second respectively.
Felipe Massa, starting from pole, crossed the line to take his 5th career win, and 3rd for the season, in what was a flawless Ferrari race weekend. The Brazilian’s victory moves him back to third in the standings with 69 points. The result also meant that Massa was able to score a repeat of victories in the Turkish GP after having won his maiden victory in the venue last year.
Kimi Raikkonen had a good start from third on the grid to seize second place from Lewis Hamilton before turn one and never looked back since. The Finn however would probably be slightly disappointed with the result since he was the quickest during Friday and Saturday practice and looked to be the man-to-beat. Unfortunately, a slight problem with oversteer coupled with a minor error in the final corners during Q3 forced Raikkonen to start the race from third position thus compromising his chances for victory. Nevertheless, the result was far from damaging since Raikkonen is still in the title hunt with 68 points.
The result is a very good sign for Ferrari. Although qualifying was neck-and-neck between Ferrari and McLaren, it was apparent that Scuderia Ferrari’s set-up suited the characteristics of the Turkish race track with long straights as well as fast sweeping corners. Both scarlet cars displayed blistering pace on both the soft and hard compound tires as they finished more than 20 seconds ahead of the nearest rival. With the next 4 races going to be held in Monza, Spa-Franchorchamps, Fuji Speedway, and Shanghai (all tracks with similar characteristics of long straights and high speed bends), there is a good chance, barring any unreliability issues, that Scuderia Ferrari might just be able to claw back significant deficit to make the title fight even more interesting before the season ending race in Interlagos.
As good as the day was for Ferrari, The McLaren, on the other hand, had a tough and long race. However, Fernando Alonso should still be relieved with third place. The Spaniard, starting from fourth and on the dirty side of the track, suffered from a poor start as he was overtaken by the two BMW Saubers of Kubica and Heidfeld. Alonso had to wait for the Saubers to make a pit-stop before he could pick up the pace. By the time that the reigning champion had a clear track ahead of him, he was well behind of Massa, Raikkonen, and Hamilton respectively. It looked as though Alonso was going to settle for fourth place as the gap between him and the top three drivers was insurmountable. However, Hamilton suffered a right front tire failure just before the final round of pit-stops that allowed Alonso to snatch third place.
The tire blow-out was a huge blow for Hamilton as he dropped from third to finish just fifth in the race behind the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfeld. It was only the second time so far this season that the Briton did not score a podium finish. The result means that the rookie’s lead in the standings was cut to just five points with just five races remaining. As it stands, Hamilton has 84 points, Alonso 79, while the Ferrari duo of Massa and Raikkonen has 69 and 68 respectively. A four-way fight to the title is still very much alive.
Heikki Kovalainen finished an impressive sixth while Nico Rosberg was seventh. Kubica, Fisichella and Coulthard rounded up the top ten finishing eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.
