Thursday, August 23, 2007

Turkish GP @ Istambul Park - 26 August 2007

Race weekend report , Q1. Q2 . Q3 and race times click here

The RACE
Felipe Massa was rightly voted "driver of the day" after leading from start to finish and making it his second Turkish Grand Prix win in a row. Kim Raikkonen kept in second place throughout, closing on the Brazilian, but never looking a threat, although he did put in the fastest lap towards the end to "make a point". Lewis Hamilton held third place, but never seemed in a position to overtake either of the Ferrari's who had started on the soft compound, only changing this after the second pit stop. This with the higher down force possibly gave them the advantage over the McLaren´s. Fernando Alonso, like Hamilton, on hard tyres and on the dirty side, lost two places at the start to the two BMW's and for 17 laps had to look at the rear wing of Nick Heidfeld, a frequent view for him this year. Kubica came into the pits on lap 13 and he managed to leapfrog the other BMW of Heidfeld at the first pit stop holding fourth place until with just 15 laps to go Hamilton´s right front went elevating Alonso to third and a podium finish, narrowing the gap down to just points with just 5 races remaining. Michael Schumacher was 21 points down (I think) before last years Turkish Grand Prix so the Championship is not over with Ferrari instructing their drivers to have one/two finishes for the remaining races. Lewis Hamilton held on to sixth place with a badly handling car (only they blown tyre being changed) just holding of the ever improving Kovalainen who had even briefly led the race in the first stint just prior to his first stop. The only incident was Giancarlo Fisichella touching Jarno Trulli and causing his fellow Italian to spin his Toyota from which he was not to recover at the first corner on the first lap. Mark Webber was the only retirement.

Turkish Grand Prix on ITV
Live qualifying Saturday 25 August 1130-1315 ITV1
Live race Sunday 26 August 1145-1505 ITV1
Highlights Sunday 26 August 2315-0015 ITV1
Highlights re-run Monday 27 August 1800-1900 ITV4

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