Turkey 2008 : Hat trick for Massa

This was race that could have been a little boring, but with Lewis Hamilton on a 3 stop strategy and more passing and re passing on the track than usual, there was plenty to watch. In the end, Felipe Massa does own Istanbul Park as he won his 3rd consecutive Turkish Grand Prix.

The race started in typical fashion with the cars bunching up into the first turn. Kovalainen and Raikkonen had a minor touch which slightly damaged Raikkonen’s front wing and punctured Kovalainen’s left rear causing a slow leak. Kovalainen after going in for a tire change re entered the circuit way back. Being loaded heavy with fuel and at the back of the grid, Kovalainen spent the rest of the day fighting hard to move up.

Even though bad luck hit Kovalainen, he put on a good show for us with some great passing. He and Timo Glock went back and forth for a while including a pass and re pass before Kovalainen’s faster McLaren got rid of Glock on the long straight. It was a bitter pill for Kovalainen because in the end 11th was all he could manage.

After Jarno Trulli was almost stopped after being held up in the first turn, Fisichella came storming up behind everyone and before he could even think of stopping his car, he was hard into the back of Nakajima and then up in the air and over top stopping dead in his tracks in the gravel trap. Nakajima with horrible damage to the rear of his car initially thought he could continue, but in the end, both he and Fisichella were the first lap casualties. There was something new however, Sebastian Vettel made it past lap one and actually finished the race.

Fisischella didn’t qualify for the race all that well and couple that with his 3 grid position penalty for running a red in Friday practice and you have a ‘bad’ weekend for Giancarlo.

Raikkonen was never really in this race for a win. Massa had a hooked up car that left nothing for Raikkonen to catch.

Robert Kubica once again had the better of Nick Heidfeld, but BMW-Sauber today looked slower than McLaren. Kubica saying he was a little slower than those in front of him, but faster than everyone behind him. Heidfeld managed to get 5th after starting 9th. Trulli was his victim on the start when he moved to 8th and then 2 more spots through pit strategy was the day for Heidfeld and by later in the race he was racing himself in a pocket all by himself.

Renault was once again led (not surprisingly) by Alonso as Nelson Piquet is looking less and less an F1 driver. In the second race in a row, Alonso pitted first and although not as impressive as in Spain was faster than Mark Webber and did finish in the points again with his 6th place finish. Piquet finished a lowly 15th.

Mark Webber is taking the reigns for Red Bull consistently now in Coulthard’s defense he only finished 2 places behind Webber who finished 7th. Another new result for Coulthard is that he finished the race unscathed by a crash or bump from anyone.

Jarno Trulli lost out badly at the start with the chaotic first corner losing 3 spots before the end of lap 1 and never did get them back. Timo Glock was a 1 stopper and the only affect that had was that he spent the whole race buried in traffic.

It was the second poor outing for Honda. The car reminded me more of last years’ car with no pace and giving Button and Barrichello too rough a time to do much the entire weekend. Button may have faired a little better, but a brake problem and a change to a one stopper led to 11th place one lap down. Barrichello in race 257 was lapped as well and finished 14th.

The story of the day was Lewis Hamilton’s 3 stopper. It was strange to see Lewis flying around the track as if he was just trying to get to his next stop. McLaren did give a reason for this by saying it was Bridgestone who advised them that Hamilton was at risk of a tire failure if he ran them for too many laps. Lewis was the only driver warned by Bridgestone and the reason is the extreme loads on the right front caused by his setup and driving style. The strategy recommended was a 20-18-20.

Now, Bridgestone are denying they told Hamilton to do a 3 stopper suggesting only a two-stop strategy pitting on laps 20 and 38, but Instead McLaren opted for three stops, with Hamilton pitting on laps 16, 32 and 45.


BMW-Sauber outscored McLaren for the 3rd time in 5 races. In McLaren’s defense, one race had Kovalainen out with a crash, and this race he suffered from a puncture and finishing out of the points. 3 out of 5 with this info doesn’t really tell too much of a story.
Now we’re onto Monaco and then Canada where traditionally McLaren are better than Ferrari. If this remains the case this year, the battle may just have begun.