2008 Turkish Grand Prix
After two consecutive one-twos Ferrari lead both the Constructors' Championship by 12 points from BMW Sauber and the Drivers' Championship through World Champion Kimi Räikkönen by 9 points from McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari's two drivers are the only drivers to win a Turkish Grand Prix to date with Räikkönen winning in 2005 for McLaren and his current team-mate Felipe Massa winning both his debut win in 2006 and again in 2007, both with Ferrari.
The race featured only 10 teams and 20 cars for the first time since the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix. Super Aguri was forced to withdraw from the championship season due to financial problems.
Report
Qualifying
Following the withdrawal of the Super Aguri entries, minor changes were made to the qualifying procedure. In the first qualifying session, the five slowest cars would be eliminated, leaving 15 drivers to continue into the second session. In the second session, once again five slowest were eliminated, leaving ten drivers to compete in third part as previously.
Ferrari's Felipe Massa qualified pole ahead of McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton. World Champion and Championship leader Räikkönen qualified fourth ahead of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica and Red Bull's Mark Webber. Alonso, Trulli, Heidfeld and Coulthard complete the top 10.
Rubens Barrichello of Honda qualified 12th on his record-breaking 257th Grand Prix, ahead of team-mate Jenson Button. Nelson Piquet of Renault failed to make Qualifying 2, whilst Kazuki Nakajima of Williams was the first driver this season to finish 16th in Qualifying 1 and not go through to Qualifying 2. Giancarlo Fisichella's three-place grid drop saw him drop behind team-mate Sutil to 20th and last place on the grid.
Race
At the start, Hamilton immediately overtook Kovalainen to claim second before the first corner to pursue Massa. Into the first corner Räikkönen's front wing made contact with Kovalainen's left rear tyre, which resulted in a puncture for the McLaren driver; this forced him to pit, dropping him to the back of the field while Räikkönen damaged his front wing and would continue the entire race distance without changing the nose, "We chose to use the front wing as it takes too long to change it" the Ferrari driver said following the race. Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel collided with Force India driver Adrian Sutil and both were forced to pit, Vettel with a puncture and Sutil for a new front wing. Sutil's team mate Giancarlo Fisichella and Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima collided at the first turn as well after the Italian braked too late and could not avoid the Japanese driver. Fisichella later claimed this was because of Sebastien Bourdais changing direction twice before the first corner, leaving him with very little option. Fisichella retired on the spot but Nakajima carried on, despite losing both his front and rear wing in the incident, and pitted at the end of the lap he retired soon afterwards. The incident resulted in the safety car being deployed.
The safety car was withdrawn at the end of the second lap and the race was underway again with Massa six tenths of the second ahead of Hamilton. Between lap four and lap eleven, the pair exchanged fastest laps and the Briton managed to hold the gap between him and Massa at one and a half seconds; he then began to close the gap, posting consecutive quick lap times and was within seven–tenths of a second by lap fifteen. Hamilton pitted a lap later and dropped back to sixth, while Massa stayed out for another three laps. When the Brazilian came in to pit-lane, Räikkönen led temporarily before he pitted at the end of lap 20; once those three had taken their stops, Massa was back into the lead. Running lighter on fuel, Hamilton was able to close the gap on Massa and on lap 24, he overtook him at turn twelve.
Hamilton soon broke away from Massa and by the end of the next lap he was 1.8 seconds ahead of him. Further back, Bourdais span off at turn twelve, "Something broke at the back of the car, I don't know what it was yet. Going into Turn 12, I braked at the usual point and the car went sideways, I felt the right rear corner of the car drop and it spun me round" the French driver remarked after the race. Over the next six laps, Hamilton would stretch his lead over Massa to 3.8 seconds before pitting in on lap 32; when the harder tyres were again fitted, it became clear that Hamilton was on a three stop strategy. The Brit re–emerged third, 2.6 seconds behind second place Räikkönen.
Eight laps after Hamilton's pit stop, Ferrari call in Massa for his final stop of the afternoon making Räikkönen the leader of the race once more. This lead, however, would last for a couple of laps as the Finn pitted on lap 43, also making his final stop of the afternoon. Two laps after the Ferrari drivers' pit stop, Hamilton went in for his final one. The McLaren driver rejoined the track behind Massa but ahead of championship leader Räikkönen. The top three would remain this way for the remainder of the race.
Further back in fourth and fifth were the two BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, behind them were Fernando Alonso, Jarno Trulli, Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg and David Coulthard with Kovalainen pursuing closely behind them. The Finn would, however, climb up past Coulthard, Rosberg and Trulli to get into the points but had to pit pushing him back down the field. Back at the front, Felipe Massa won the race, making it his third consecutive win at the circuit, 3.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton with Räikkönen half a second behind in third. The two BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld finished fourth and fifth respectively while further back Alonso, Webber and Rosberg complete the top eight.
Classification
Qualifying
| Pos | No | Name | Constructor | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Grid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:25.994 | 1:26.192 | 1:27.617 | 1 |
| 2 | 23 | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:26.736 | 1:26.290 | 1:27.808 | 2 |
| 3 | 22 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:26.192 | 1:26.477 | 1:27.923 | 3 |
| 4 | 1 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:26.457 | 1:26.050 | 1:27.936 | 4 |
| 5 | 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 1:26.761 | 1:26.129 | 1:28.390 | 5 |
| 6 | 10 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1:26.773 | 1:26.466 | 1:28.417 | 6 |
| 7 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 1:26.836 | 1:26.522 | 1:28.422 | 7 |
| 8 | 11 | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | 1:26.695 | 1:26.822 | 1:28.836 | 8 |
| 9 | 3 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 1:27.107 | 1:27.607 | 1:28.882 | 9 |
| 10 | 9 | David Coulthard | Red Bull-Renault | 1:26.939 | 1:26.520 | 1:29.959 | 10 |
| 11 | 7 | Nico Rosberg | Williams-Toyota | 1:27.367 | 1:27.012 | 11 | |
| 12 | 17 | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | 1:27.355 | 1:27.219 | 12 | |
| 13 | 16 | Jenson Button | Honda | 1:27.428 | 1:27.298 | 13 | |
| 14 | 15 | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:27.442 | 1:27.412 | 14 | |
| 15 | 12 | Timo Glock | Toyota | 1:26.614 | 1:27.806 | 15 | |
| 16 | 8 | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams-Toyota | 1:27.547 | 16 | ||
| 17 | 6 | Nelson Piquet Jr. | Renault | 1:27.568 | 17 | ||
| 18 | 14 | Sébastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:27.621 | 18 | ||
| 19 | 21 | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India-Ferrari | 1:27.807 | 201 | ||
| 20 | 20 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Ferrari | 1:28.325 | 19 |
- Giancarlo Fisichella got a three place grid penalty for exiting pitlane on red lights during Friday first practice session.
Race
Notes
- Lap Leaders: Felipe Massa 42 (1–19, 22–23, 33–40, 46–58); Lewis Hamilton 11 (24–32, 44–45); Kimi Räikkönen 5 (20–21, 41–43)
- This was Felipe Massa's third consecutive win in Turkey, all achieved from pole.
- This was Brazilian Rubens Barrichello's 257th race, thus making him the driver who has raced the most number of Formula One races, beating Riccardo Patrese's 256.
- This was Sebastian Vettel's first finish of the season.
- This was scheduled to be the last time Toro Rosso used the "b-specification" car of 2007. The team intend to introduce the Toro Rosso STR3 at the next race, the 2008 Monaco Grand Prix.
- Kimi Räikkönen's wing was damaged during the first lap, but it was decided not to change it.
References
Publications
- Hughes, Mark; Jonathan Noble; Gary Anderson (2008). "Massa Attack". Autosport 192 (7): 36–47. Retrieved on 2008-05-15.
Citations
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Friday October 03, 2008 at 08:59:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
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