2007 Turkish Grand Prix

The 2007 Turkish Grand Prix was the twelfth race of the 2007 Formula One season. Won by Felipe Massa, it was held from 24 to August 26 at the Istanbul Park in Istanbul. It was the third time a Formula One race had been held here. The two previous winners of the race were Kimi Räikkönen in 2005 and Massa in 2006, both of whom race for Ferrari in 2007.

It came following considerable controversy after the 2006 event, where the organisers were fined $5,000,000 for political bias, due to their choice of Mehmet Ali Talat to present the winner's trophy. Talat is President of the Turkish Cypriot state, which is not an internationally recognised government. This was seen by the governing body of Formula One as having compromised their neutrality.

Lewis Hamilton came into the race with a 7 point lead over McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso after Hamilton's controversial victory in the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix. McLaren led Ferrari in the constructors' championship by 19 points despite not being allowed to score points in Hungary. However, the Ferrari had looked strong in recent weeks, and their two cars ultimately dominated the race from start to finish, Massa and Räikkönen taking first and second places respectively. A late puncture dropped Hamilton to fifth place and cut his championship lead over Alonso to five points.

During the press conference following the race, Massa commented that "the Istanbul Park was the track where he made his career turn-around, and finally began winning races." He also praised the track as well as the city.

Report

Race

Felipe Massa's Ferrari led from pole from team-mate Kimi Räikkönen who had jumped McLaren's Lewis Hamilton off the grid to take second place. Reigning World Champion Fernando Alonso's start from fourth was even worse than team-mate Hamilton's as he fell behind both BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld into sixth. However, BMW's early stopping strategy led to Alonso taking both places back after the first round of pit-stops. At the first round of stops it seemed that Räikkönen could pass Massa if he stopped later, as he did at the French Grand Prix. However, Massa stopped after Räikkönen to retain the lead. Hamilton stopped later than both Ferraris and caught several seconds up to them, but could not pass Räikkönen for second, as he gradually fell away. Meanwhile, Kubica's strategy had not only dropped him behind Heidfeld and Alonso, but Renault's Heikki Kovalainen too. Massa stopped later than Räikkönen again at the second pit stop, and therefore retained the lead as Ferrari called the race between team-mates off at this point. Hamilton may have emerged ahead of Räikkönen , but a puncture in his front tyre dropped him to fifth behind Heidfeld and Alonso. Damage to his front wing led to Kovalainen catching him, but the Finn was unable to pass Hamilton. Kubica lost a place to Nico Rosberg through strategy finishing eighth. Massa eventually won his second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix, and his fifth Grand Prix win overall, all of which came from pole position. He had secured his eighth pole in qualifying. Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing was the only retirement, with a hydraulic failure. Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Vitantonio Liuzzi ended a run of 9 consecutive retirements stretching back to the Bahrain Grand Prix in April.

Classification

Qualifying

Pos	Name	Team/Engine	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
1	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:27.488	1:27.039	1:27.329
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.513	1:26.936	1:27.373
3	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:27.294	1:26.902	1:27.546
4	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	1:27.328	1:26.841	1:27.574
5	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	1:27.997	1:27.253	1:27.722
6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	1:28.099	1:27.253	1:28.037
7	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	1:28.127	1:27.039	1:28.491
8	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	1:28.275	1:27.750	1:28.501
9	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	1:28.318	1:27.801	1:28.740
10	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	1:28.313	1:27.880	1:29.322
11	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	1:28.304	1:28.002
12	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1:28.500	1:28.013
13	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	1:28.395	1:28.100
14	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	1:28.360	1:28.390
15	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:28.798
16	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	1:28.809
17	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	1:28.953
18	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:29.408
19	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	1:29.861
20	Sakon Yamamoto	Spyker-Ferrari	1:31.479
21*	Jenson Button	Honda	1:28.373	1:28.220
22*	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	1:28.792	1:28.188

* Jenson Button was given a ten-place grid penalty for an engine change after qualifying.

* Rubens Barrichello was given a ten-place grid penalty for an engine change before the race.

Race

Pos	No	Driver	Constructor	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	5	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	1:26:42.161	1	10
2	6	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	58	+2.275	3	8
3	1	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+26.181	4	6
4	9	Nick Heidfeld	BMW Sauber	58	+39.674	6	5
5	2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+45.085	2	4
6	4	Heikki Kovalainen	Renault	58	+46.169	7	3
7	16	Nico Rosberg	Williams-Toyota	58	+55.778	8	2
8	10	Robert Kubica	BMW Sauber	58	+56.707	5	1
9	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Renault	58	+59.491	10
10	14	David Coulthard	Red Bull-Renault	58	+1:11.009	13
11	17	Alexander Wurz	Williams-Toyota	58	+1:19.628	14
12	11	Ralf Schumacher	Toyota	57	+1 Lap	16
13	7	Jenson Button	Honda	57	+1 Lap	21
14	23	Anthony Davidson	Super Aguri-Honda	57	+1 Lap	11
15	18	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	15
16	12	Jarno Trulli	Toyota	57	+1 Lap	9
17	8	Rubens Barrichello	Honda	57	+1 Lap	22
18	22	Takuma Sato	Super Aguri-Honda	57	+1 Lap	17
19	19	Sebastian Vettel	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	18
20	21	Sakon Yamamoto	Spyker-Ferrari	56	+2 Laps	20
21	20	Adrian Sutil	Spyker-Ferrari	53	Fuel pressure	19
Ret	15	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	9	Hydraulics	12

Notes

• Fastest Lap: Kimi Räikkönen, 1:27.295 (Lap 57, 220.136 km/h)
• Lap Leaders: Felipe Massa 55 (1–19, 22–42, 44–58), Lewis Hamilton 1 (20), Heikki Kovalainen 1 (21), Fernando Alonso 1 (43).
• Although Adrian Sutil retired, he still completed enough laps to be a classified finisher. Therefore this race recorded the highest number of classified finishers—21—in a championship race, a record held since the 2005 Italian Grand Prix, where 20 cars finished.

References

External links

• Detailed Turkish Grand Prix results