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Massa wins easily at Istanbul |
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Written by Sports Network
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Sunday, 26 August 2007 09:21 |
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Ferrari's Felipe Massa captured Sunday's Grand Prix of Turkey Formula One race at the Istanbul Autodrom. The No.5 Ferrari driver crossed the finish line 2.275 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen.
The victory was Massa's third of the season and fifth of his F1 career.
Massa won the race to the first turn with his Ferrari teammate Raikkonen beating McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for second place.
Hamilton set a fastest lap of the day on lap four, but he was still 2.3 seconds behind Massa in third place. Meanwhile, Alonso slid off the track falling two places to sixth.
Raikkonen sets a new "fastest lap" on lap six as he closed on Massa. On the softer tires, the two Ferraris began to edge away from Hamilton.
On lap 13, Robert Kubica pitted from fourth place, a very early stop for the BMW driver.
Raikkonen was the first man to put up a lap of under one minute, 28 seconds to get within 0.7-seconds of his teammate. The leaders all pitted on lap 18 and 19, but there was no lead change - it still belonged to Massa followed by Raikkonen and Hamilton.
In fact, Massa's lead on his teammate was now 2.4 seconds. Alonso has gotten around Nick Heidfeld for fourth place, but was more than 14 seconds behind his teammate Hamilton.
On lap 29 Hamilton lost almost a full second to Massa, he was now six seconds off the pace. Massa also led Raikkonen by 2.6 seconds, it appeared to be his race to win or lose.
Though Hamilton was unable to close on the Ferrari drivers, Raikkonen began to make inroads into Massa's lead, cutting the gap to 1.7 seconds on lap 35. Massa slipped slightly and Raikkonen was now just 0.9 seconds back and pressuring his teammate. Another lap and the margin was 0.4 seconds.
On lap 42 Hamilton blows a right-front tire and has to limp back to the pits. It cost him two places as he was passed by Alonso and Heidfeld.
The two Ferraris prepare for their final stops. Usually at Ferrari, though team orders are against F1 rules, the driver who is behind after the final stop is not allowed to pass his teammate for the rest of the race.
It's now a two-man race between Massa and Raikkonen with third-place Alonso more than 20 seconds behind the leader. And Massa is faster than his teammate building the lead to 3.9 seconds with eight laps to go.
Hamilton, the points leader, is struggling apparently with front wing damage from the tire puncture. He was making no progress towards the front and in fact was being caught by Heikki Kovalainen.
Two laps to go and Massa was cruising with a 7.4-second lead. Only a mechanical failure or a huge driving mistake can keep him from the victory.
Massa took the victory and is the eighth driver this year to win from the pole. He moves ahead of his teammate in the standings with 69 points to Raikkonen's 68 points. Hamilton still leads the championship with 84 points, five ahead of Alonso.
The next race in the series is scheduled for Sunday, September 9th at Monza, Italy. |