14 Turkey - Felipe Massa claims his first Grand Prix win!
Felipe Massa this afternoon claimed his first Grand Prix victory as he dominated the Turkish Grand Prix, crossing the line five second ahead of his nearest rival. While it was a flawless performance from the Brazilian, all eyes were on the great battle in the closing stages between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher.
The 58-lap race started in dramatic style with Giancarlo Fisichella spinning at the first turn and triggering a number of incidents, but the spin and stall by Tonio Liuzzi was perhaps the most important moment of the Turkish race.
With the Toro Rosso Cosworth stranded on the racing line at the exit of turn one, the Race Director had little option to send out the Safety Car to allow the stricken car to be removed. The timing of this was perfect for the first round of pit stops and the top six, all pitted.
Running first and second, Ferrari had no option to service Felipe Massa's 248 F1 while Schumacher waited his turn. This allowed Alonso to gain position on his championship rival and provided us with some classic racing in the closing stages of the race.
With Massa out front and controlling his pace, Schumacher was fuelled a little longer than Alonso and attempted to retake the position in the second round of stops. The tactic did not work and so Schumacher's only chance of success therefore rested with him making a pass on track.
Schumacher was clearly had the pace to pull away from Alonso could he make the pass, but critically, he was much slower than his rivals through the long left handed turn eight. Losing time in this turn hurt the remainder of the lap and despite his best efforts, took the chequered flag a tenth of a second behind Alonso.
Alonso's second position extends his championship advantage to 12 points over Schumacher.
Jenson Button, a winner last time out in Hungary, had to settle for fourth position today in turkey as he was unable to match the pace of the Ferrari and Renault team. Rubens Barrichello scored a single point for eighth position but along with some other mid-field runners, had a tremendous race with is rivals.
Pedro de la Rosa finished a distant fifth in his McLaren and Mercedes using a one stop strategy on a day when the team celebrated 200 starts together. For Kimi Raikkonen, his 100th start was not a successful one as he was tagged in the first turn and suffered a puncture as a result. After a pit stop to replace the tyres he crashed out seconds later ending what was a disappointing weekend from the team.
Giancarlo Fisichella salvaged a sixth position after spinning at the first turn. As he lost the rear end of his R26, he clipped Nick Heidfeld breaking the BMW Sauber driver's front wing while behind Raikkonen was forced to take avoiding action with its own consequences while Tiago Monteiro and Takuma Sato got together effectively ending their race very early. Fisichella would resume and after a pit stop for a new front wing, worked his way back up to sixth.
Ralf Schumacher had an eventful run in his Toyota and did a great job to finish in seventh position. Starting 15th he was forced to the pits at the end of the first lap to replace a broken front wing and then would stop just once more. The Toyota driver made some great passes into the penultimate turn on many occasions and is fully deserving of the points finish.
With Barrichello eighth in the second Honda, Jarno Trulli battled hard with the Brazilian in the final third of the race but was unable to make the pass on track. Barrichello took the position from his Italian rival in the final round of pit stops.
Mark Webber had a good race in his Williams Cosworth on what is his birthday. Sadly for the Australian, he was not rewarded with much needed points as he finished in tenth. Team-mate Nico Rosberg ran well after gaining some eight places on the first lap but again the FW27 package proved unreliable and he retired from the race.
Christian Klien was 11th in his Red Bull Ferrari while David Coulthard slowed with a mechanical problem in the closing staged in hiss RB2 but he had never been a points contender this weekend.
It was a disappointing race for BMW Sauber as Nick Heidfeld's race was severely compromised by the spinning Fisichella at the start while Robert Kubica seemed to struggle for race pace and finished in 12th, four placed down on his starting position.
Scott Speed finished in 13th position in his Toro Rosso ahead of Heidfeld while Coulthard was classified in 15th. Of the rest, Christijan Albers was running pretty well for MF1 Toyota, but spun off late in the race while Sakon Yamamoto ran ahead of the recovering Heidfeld until he pulled off with a mechanical problem on the SA06.
Felipe Massa fully deserved his first win and Fernando Alonso did a great job to hang on to second position ahead of Schumacher who will be wondering if that one mistake in qualifying yesterday may have cost him the Turkish win and perhaps even more.