Results of the 2008 Turkish F1 Grand Prix
The race in Istanbul produced a thrilling day of motor sport in which Ferrari again triumphed with Felipe Massa achieving a hat trick of victories on this circuit. He was closely followed home by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, demonstrating for the second race in a row that very little separates these three drivers.
Robert Kubica once again showed he could well become BMW’s number one driver, finishing fourth ahead of team-mate Nick Heidfeld, they were more than 20 seconds adrift of the leaders. Fernando Alonso pushed his Renault home to sixth, although he was third at one stage, while Mark Webber in the Red Bull and Nico Rosberg in the Williams again picked up the tail end of the points.
Massa, who lead from pole position was lucky to get away with victory after Hamilton pulled a blinding manoeuvre on him to snatch the lead on lap 24. The Briton had started in third, but his team-mate Heikki Kovalianen let him through to second on the first corner and also successfully shut out fourth placed Raikkonen who slipped to sixth in the scramble. However their cars briefly touch and the McLaren end up with a puncture, forcing the Finn to pit and restart at the back. It was more bad luck for McLaren who are steadily slipping behind Ferrari in the Constructors’ log and are still third behind BMW.
It wasn’t the only dramas at the start as Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella ramped over the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, ending their races and prompting the safety car to emerge. Safety also played a hand in McLaren’s race, and they opted for a three stop strategy and hard compound tyres for most of the race on this notoriously bumpy circuit. This was in light of last year’s tyre failure and accident, and it meant Hamilton’s brief lead vanished when he had to pit an extra time. He did well to pressure Massa but ultimately he had to fight off a late charge from Raikkonen as he struggled on the soft compound tyres at the end.
Raikkonen’s lead has now been cut to seven points with Massa and Hamilton tied on second with 28, and Robert Kubica in fourth four points behind. However Ferrari have extended their Constructors’ lead to 19, on 63, while McLaren are third on 42, two points behind BMW.
Results of Turkish F1 Grand Prix:
- Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 26 minutes 49.451 seconds
- Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes +3.779 secs
- Kimi Räikkönen (Fin) Ferrari +4.271
- Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +21.945
- Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +38.741
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +53.724
- Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +1:04.229
- Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +1:11.406
- David Coulthard (GB) Red Bull-Renault +1:15.270
- Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota +1:16.344
- Jenson Button (GB) Honda one lap behind
- Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren-Mercedes one lap
- Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota one lap
- Rubens Barrichello (Brz) Honda one lap
- Nelson Piquet (Brz) Renault one lap
- Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India-Ferrari one lap
- Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Toro Rosso-Ferrari one lap
R Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 33 laps completed
R Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams-Toyota one lap
R Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India-Ferrari no laps