Results of the 2007 Turkish F1 Grand Prix

It' was Ferrari's weekend as they claimed a one-two victory that saw Felipe Massa take his third chequered flag of the season at the circuit where he scored his first ever victory. Their chief rivals, McLaren, still managed third and fifth to mitigate their second loss of constructors points in as many races. Alonso happily collected third, but it was an unlucky day for points leader Lewis Hamilton.

Just across the Bosphorus, the familiar red Italian cars got off to a dream start as Massa held onto his narrowly gained pole position and Kimi Raikonnen out sprinted Hamilton to the first corner to ease into second. And with the exception of pitstops, the two drivers never looked back, even if they finished only seconds ahead of Alonso. But the Spaniard was lucky to finish third, having started fourth and slipped to sixth on the first lap. He eventually finished ahead of Nick Heidfeld's consistent BMW.

Hamilton's race looked set to finish two points clear of his teammate and rival Alonso, until suffering a puncture on lap 49. He was however able to limp back into the pits, change tyres and rejoin the race in fifth. But the damage to this suspension from the shredded tyre hampered his competitiveness and eventually he found himself fending off a late charge from Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault. And behind them were Nico Rosberg in the Williams and the other BMW of Robert Kubica, for seventh and eight.

Alonso, who had been caught up behind the two BMWs for much of the race leapfrogged them both after well timed pit stops. But with a 10 second gap between him and Hamilton he was never going to pass the rookie without a bit of luck. Another driver who wasn't favoured by luck was Robert Kubica, who was running fourth in the early stages but had to make an unscheduled pitstop and only managed to pick up a single point.

Interestingly, the two top teams raced different tyre strategies, with the Ferraris using soft compound tyres from the start to enable to them to put in some quick laps before an early pitstop, while the McLarens opted to stay out longer on the more durable hard compound tyres.

Only two cars retired; Mark Webber yet again in his Red Bull, and Adrian Sutil in the Spyker. Jenson Button, still battling away in the slow Honda, fought his way up valantly from 18 th to 13 th , just ahead of fellow Briton Anthony Davidson. Meanwhile David Coulthard finished 10 th . In fact the best racing and overtaking manouevres were all in the middle and back of the field.

Lewis Hamilton's lead at the top of the drivers standings has now been reduced once more to five points ahead of Alonso who has 79. Massa recovered from his disastrous drive at Hungary to move back into third, 10 points further back. Raikkonen remains 1 point behind his teammate. Ferrari managed to further chip away at McLaren's commanding lead in the Constructors' Championship and now lie just 11 points behind on 137.

Results from Istanbul Park

1 Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari 1hr 26mins 42.161secs
2 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:26:44.436
3 Fernando Alonso (Spa) McLaren-Mercedes 1:27:08.342
4 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:27:21.835
5 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 1:27:27.216
6 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Renault 1:27:28.330
7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota 1:27:37.939
8 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:27:38.868
9 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:27:41.652
10 David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault 1:27:53.569
11 Alexander Wurz (Aut) Williams-Toyota 1:28:01.761
12 Ralf Schumacher (Ger) Toyota at one lap
13 Jenson Button (GB) Honda at one lap
14 Anthony Davidson (GB) Super Aguri-Honda at one lap
15 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) Toro Rosso-Ferrari at one lap
16 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota at one lap
17 Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda at one lap
18 Takuma Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri-Honda at one lap
19 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari at one lap
20 Sakon Yamamoto (Jpn) Spyker-Ferrari at two laps
R Adrian Sutil (Ger) Spyker-Ferrari 53 laps completed
R Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault nine laps completed

Key: R = retired