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Massa and Hamilton lead into the first corner. (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
The polesitter has won every Turkish Grand Prix ever held, and Felipe Massa kept that run going on Sunday with a dominant performance in Istanbul, becoming the first man to win the same race three years in succession since Michael Schumacher at Indianapolis (2003-04-05-06).
Massa’s win saw him break through the 200-point mark in his Ferrari career, an achievement matched only by Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello and Niki Lauda. The team has now won 5 of the last 6 races, with the only interruption being Lewis Hamilton’s victory in Melbourne to open the year.
Speaking of Hamilton, the British driver finished second despite stopping three times, something nobody has attempted on this circuit since the Jordan team did it at the 2005 race. His inspired drive, which included a pass on Massa for the lead on lap 24, prevented what would have been Ferrari’s third consecutive 1-2 finish, which Ferrari last achieved at the 2004 European, Canadian and United States GPs.
However, the McLaren man was unable to prevent Massa from jumping ahead of him into
BMW’s Robert Kubica finished fourth, just as he did in Barcelona, albeit a disappointing 21 seconds behind Massa after qualifying outside the top four for the first time all year. His did have the consolation of comfortably beating teammate Nick Heidfeld, who celebrated his 31st birthday on Saturday.
He probably wasn’t in a partying mood, after qualifying ninth. He had a great deal of difficulty making it out of Q2, only making it on the last of his 8 laps in the session, whereas the front runners only required a 3 lap run to secure progression. Nevertheless, he started in the top ten for the 28th race in a row.
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