Massa dominates in Istanbul

A flawless drive from Ferrari's Massa sees pole to pole victory.

Auto Express Car Reviews

By James Disdale

12th May 2008

It was three out of three for Felipe Massa in Turkey. The Ferrari driver completed a hat-trick of wins at the Istanbul circuit by starting from pole position and dominating the race.

The young Brazilian finished comfortably ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium places. Despite his third place finish, the Finn still heads the championship table, seven points ahead of Hamilton.

At the back of the field, Giancarlo Fisichella caused carnage and an early safety car period after running into the back of Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams-Toyota. The Italian’s Force India was sent airborne, and both drivers were knocked out of the race.

Despite missing out on the top spot, Hamilton was in an upbeat mood as his McLaren-Mercedes had the measure of the Italian cars for the first time since the opening round in Australia.

By running a three-stop strategy, the 23-year-old used his lighter fuel load to leap from third to second at the start, passing team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. The Finn had qualified second after putting his horror crash in Spain behind him. But his good work was almost immediately undone, after suffering a puncture caused by Raikkonen hitting the back of the McLaren in another first lap clash. After a pitstop, Kovalainen fought back from last place to finish 12th.

Behind the top three were the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. They couldn’t match the pace of the leaders, and ran a relatively quiet race to fourth and fifth places respectively.

Jenson Button yet again struggled with his Honda, managing a lowly 11th, a lap down on the leaders. Red Bull driver David Coulthard narrowly missed out on a points finish in ninth.

But top Brit was Hamilton again, who enjoyed his return to form. “I am thrilled to have come second from third,” he said. “This is probably the best race I have ever driven.”

The next round is the famous Monaco street race on 25 May.