Brazilian Felipe Massa secured the fifth win of his Formula One career and the third of this season when he spearheaded a Ferrari one-two in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.
The victory revived his hopes of challenging for the drivers’ championship and Ferrari’s bid for the constructors’ title as he came home ahead of teammate Finn Kimi Raikkonen.
Defending champion Fernando Alonso finished third for McLaren Mercedes-Benz ahead of German Nick Heidfeld in a BMW Sauber, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton fifth.
Hamilton’s lead over double champion Alonso was cut by two points to five with just five races left this season.
Massa’s third win of the season, and fifth of his career, saw him leapfrog Raikkonen into third place, but he is still 15 points behind Hamilton with Raikkonen one point further back.
It was Massa’s second triumph in succession from pole position at the Istanbul Park circuit and he took the chequered flag 2,2 seconds ahead of Raikkonen.
”It is so good for me here,” said Massa. ”I love it here. I love the track and I love the place. It’s because my career switched and took off when I won last year.”
While Massa and his father celebrated, it was a day of setbacks for Hamilton who was outpaced and running third when he was hit by a tyre failure in the closing stages. The British rookie wound up finishing fifth.
”It’s a little bit of a problem, not a big blow,” said Hamilton (22). ”I am still leading the championship and there are five races to go, so it is not all over yet. Don’t worry.”
Hamilton was leading on lap 43, but with his final pit-stop moments away, the right front tyre of his McLaren-Mercedes suddenly burst to send him sliding off the circuit. He managed to coax the car back to the garage on three wheels, but it cost him a certain third place finish as he dropped behind teammate and defending double world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso and BMW’s Nick Heidfeld.
”The tyre blew and strips of it flew everywhere,” said Hamilton after his right front tyre shredded. ”I could not stop and I knew I had to be really careful bringing the car back on three wheels without any more damage.”
Alonso said: ”I had a bad start and was down to sixth in the first corner, so this is a good result to finish third after that — and ahead of Hamilton. I had to follow Nick [Heidfeld] for 17 laps and you know in Formula One today it is so difficult to overtake. You have to wait for a mistake or for the pit stops.”
The São Paulo-born driver, who had scored his maiden win on the track last year, dominated a processional race and only relinquished the lead during the two rounds of pit stops.
Raikkonen briefly got within half a second of Massa, but never threatened to overtake as Ferrari claimed their second one-two of the season. The Italian team now have 137 points in the manufacturers’ championship, just nine behind rivals McLaren.
Massa had blasted away from pole at the start of the 58-lap race with Raikkonen using the advantage of the cleaner side of the track to snatch second spot from Hamilton by the first corner.
The big loser was Alonso, who dropped from fourth to sixth behind what proved to be the lighter BMW’s of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. Alonso was stuck behind the German car until the first round of pit stops, ending any chances he had of a much-needed victory although Hamilton’s late tyre problem gave him a championship boost. — Sapa-AFP