The confidence that appeared to have deserted Lewis Hamilton at times this
season was back surging through his veins last night after an excellent
drive in the Turkish Grand Prix helped him to finish an unlikely runner-up
behind Felipe Massa, of Ferrari.
While Hamilton’s composed performance caught the eye on a day when he was
hampered by being forced into a three-stop pit strategy, the spoils
deservedly went to Massa, who completed not only his second win in three
races, but also his third consecutive victory from pole at Istanbul Park.
The likeable Brazilian, who counts Michael Schumacher among his retinue of
advisers, remains one of the most hotly debated talents in Formula One, with
many a critic convinced that he will never be anything other than a
qualifying specialist. Massa may be quick, they argue, but he lacks
consistency in a race, is prone to mistakes under pressure and is
temperamentally erratic.
Others, including, for much of the time, Massa himself, do not buy into this
and will point to his superb driving on a demanding track in Turkey over the
past three years as the best evidence of it. In the race yesterday, he got
away well from pole and did a reasonable job fighting off the attentions of
Hamilton — the Briton was running a much lighter car — until lap 24, when he
got past him.
So Massa was shown up again. Maybe. But he knew that Hamilton, who had to stop
again, was probably not battling for the win and success should be secure so
long as he brought his car home from there. “When Hamilton came underneath
me at an incredible pace, I preferred not to take too many risks,” Massa
said. “The pitwall informed me that he was clearly running a lighter fuel
load, even if we were not certain he was on a three-stop strategy. When that
became clear, we were calmer, knowing we had everything in place to go for a
win.”
Massa’s victory in Turkey lifts him to joint second place in the World
Championship alongside Hamilton, with the pair seven points adrift of
Massa’s team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen, who was third yesterday, despite driving
the entire race with a broken front wing. In the past three races, Massa has
compiled the best record of the top three drivers — a win in Bahrain, second
in Barcelona and a win in Turkey — and he has firmly banished his nightmare
start to the season, in which he was pointless after the opening two grands
prix.
Over at McLaren, Hamilton was battling tyre trouble all weekend. Last year in
Turkey, Hamilton’s front left tyre delaminated at this track — dropping him
from third to fifth — under the stresses of one of the most famous cornering
sequences in modern Formula One, the high-speed “triple-apex” Turn 8. A year
later, the McLaren MP4-23 in Hamilton’s hands (but curiously not in those of
his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen) is still punishing its front tyres on this
long left-hander more than any other car. Bridgestone, which supplies
standard tyres to all the teams, told him that he would have to run a
three-stop strategy on safety grounds.
Hamilton was disappointed with his qualifying performance on Saturday, when he
was outdriven by Kovalainen, in a heavier car, but he made amends with a
memorable drive that cancelled out the strategy handicap.
Having overtaken Kovalainen at the start, he tracked and eventually passed
Massa before settling for second after his third stop. The Briton described
his performance as the best of his brief Formula One career. “I am so
thrilled with today’s result, which I think is the best race ever for me,”
he said. “It’s not about winning, it’s about feeling that you extract 100
per cent from yourself and the car, and I did that today.”
Kovalainen had a harder time of it, getting away slowly from second on the
grid and then clashing with Raikkonen just after the start, which left him
with a slow puncture. After pitting, he fought his way through the field
and, after some entertaining moves, eventually finished twelfth.
For McLaren overall, the race appeared to show a small but significant step
forward in performance against Ferrari after two consecutive “one-twos” for
the Scuderia in Bahrain and Spain. The BMW Saubers, meanwhile, struggled to
reproduce their recent race form and finished fourth, through Robert Kubica,
and fifth, with Nick Heidfeld.
There was little incident in the race save for a dramatic “climb-over” crash
just after the start involving Giancarlo Fisichella, of Force India, and
Kazuki Nakajima, of Williams, which resulted in a brief safety car period
and Fisichella’s retirement.
Details from Istanbul
(58 laps): 1, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) 1hr 26min 49.451sec; 2, L Hamilton (GB,
McLaren Mercedes) 1:26:53.151; 3, K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 1:26:53.651; 4,
R Kubica (Pol, BMW Sauber) 1:27:11.351; 5, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber)
1:27:28.151; 6, F Alonso (Sp, Renault) 1:27:43.151; 7, M Webber (Aus, Red
Bull Renault) 1:27:53.651; 8, N Rosberg (Ger, Williams Toyota) 1:28:00.851;
9, D Coulthard (GB, Red Bull Renault) 1:28:04.651; 10, J Trulli (It, Toyota)
1:28:05.751; 11, J Button (GB, Honda); 12, H Kovalainen (Fin, McLaren
Mercedes); 13, T Glock (Ger, Toyota); 14, R Barrichello (Br, Honda); 15, N
Piquet Jr (Br, Renault); 16, A Sutil (Ger, Force India Ferrari); 17, S
Vettel (Ger, Scuderia Toro Rosso) all 1 lap behind. Not classified: 18, S
Bourdais (Fr, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari) 24 laps completed; 19, K Nakajima
(Japan, Williams Toyota) 1; 20, G Fisichella (It, Force India Ferrari) 0.
Qualifying positions
1, Massa 1min 27.617sec; 2, Kovalainen 1:27.808; 3, Hamilton 1:27.923; 4,
Raikkonen 1:27.936; 5, Kubica 1:28.390; 6, Webber 1:28.417; 7, Alonso
1:28.422; 8, Trulli 1:28.836; 9, Heidfield 1:28.882; 10, Coulthard 1:29.959;
11, Rosberg 1:27.012; 12, Barrichello 1:28.219; 13, Button 1:27.298; 14,
Vettel 1:27.412; 15, Glock 1:27.806; 16, Nakajima 1:27.547; 17, Piquet Jr
1:27.568; 18, Bourdais 1:27.621; 19, Fisichella 1:27.807; 20, Sutil
1:28.325.
Championship positions
Drivers
1, Raikkonen 35pts
2, Massa 28
=, Hamilton 28
4, Kubica 24
5, Heidfeld 20
6, Kovalainen 14
7, Webber 10
8, Alonso 9
=, Trulli 9
10, Rosberg 8
11, Nakajima 5
12, Button 3
13, Bourdais 2
Constructors
1, Ferrari 63pts
2, BMW Sauber 44
3, McLaren Mercedes 42
4, Williams Toyota 13
5, Red Bull Renault 10
6, Renault 9
=, Toyota 9
8, Honda 3
9, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari 2
Grands prix to come
May 25: Monaco (Monte Carlo). June 8: Canadian (Montreal).
June 22: French (Magny-Cours). July 6: British (Silverstone).
July 20: German (Hockenheim).
Aug 3: Hungarian (Budapest).
Aug 24: European (Valencia).
Sept 7: Belgian (Spa-Francorchamps).
Sept 14: Italian (Monza).
Sept 8: Singapore (Singapore).
Oct 12: Japanese (Fuji).
Oct 19: Chinese (Shanghai).
Nov 2: Brazilian (Interlagos).
