Sorry again for a delayed review as if its become a custom lately. I’ve my set of genuine reasons or excuses, tough. As usual, I was busy with some personal work and my internet connection stopped working all of a sudden. The connection was off for an entire week due to a fibre optic failure, as informed by my ISP. Anyway, let’s start with the review for Turkish Grand Prix 2008. We had a fair idea of what the result was going to be like but Felipe Massa opted to throw in a early warning to his rivals. Ferrari and McLaren both looked in good touch.
After two successive victories at the very same circuit, it was a matter of ascertaining his supremacy here once all over again. His team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen hadn’t had much success here but is very good as minimizing the damage. You don’t become a world champion if you’re not good at it. It was given, however, that Kimi would push Massa every inch of the way and make him earn his victory. Qualifying went as expected with Massa on pole with Heikki Kovalainen alongside. The second row was locked by Hamilton in 3rd and Kimi in 4th.
On the day of the race, it was clear that Massa was heading for another win at Turkey, his favourite circuit. Kimi lost a few positions at the start but regained them quickly. He made a slight contact with Heikki which resulted in a damaged front wing. However, the damage wasn’t big but it surely compromised his race pace. Lewis went in for a completely different strategy from the other front runners and pitted thrice compared to two pit-stops each from Kimi, Massa and Heikki. The BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld and the Renault of Fernando Alonso were close behind.
The race was fought till the very end and kept everyone guessing about the result. Massa completed yet another victory for his team at Turkey, closely followed to the finishing line by Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen. The BMWs finished 4th and 5th while Alonso managed 6th in his Renault. The final point scoring positions were bagged by Mark Webber of Red Bull and Nico Rosberg of Williams. The result meant that Kimi still leads the championship by 7 points from both Massa and Hamilton. Ferrari are 19 points clear of BMW. The next race will take place at Monaco this weekend. The final results are as -
1 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 58 - 1:26:49.451
2 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren-Mercedes - 58 - +3.7 secs
3 - Kimi Räikkönen - Ferrari - 58 - +4.2 secs
4 - Robert Kubica - BMW Sauber - 58 - +21.9 secs
5 - Nick Heidfeld - BMW Sauber - 58 - +38.7 secs
6 - Fernando Alonso - Renault - 58 - +53.7 secs
7 - Mark Webber - Red Bull-Renault - 58 - +64.2 secs
8 - Nico Rosberg - Williams-Toyota - 58 - +71.4 secs
9 - David Coulthard - Red Bull-Renault - 58 - +75.2 secs
10 - Jarno Trulli - Toyota - 58 - +76.3 secs
11 - Jenson Button - Honda - 57 - +1 Lap
12 - Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren-Mercedes - 57 - +1 Lap
13 - Timo Glock - Toyota - 57 - +1 Lap
14 - Rubens Barrichello - Honda - 57 - +1 Lap
15 - Nelsinho Piquet - Renault - 57 - +1 Lap
16 - Adrian Sutil - Force India-Ferrari - 57 - +1 Lap
17 - Sebastian Vettel - STR-Ferrari - 57 - +1 Lap
Ret - Sebastien Bourdais - STR-Ferrari - 24 - Spin
Ret - Kazuki Nakajima - Williams-Toyota - 1 - Accident damage
Ret - Giancarlo Fisichella - Force India-Ferrari - 0 - Accident
