It is said to have to say that the Turkish GP did not live up to the expectations. If even this excellent track can’t offer decent racing than what can (other than rain or safety cars)? This is a topic for another post that will be coming up next (you can subscribe to RSS feed to get all the future posts).
To prove Sir Jackie Stewart wrong again, the race was again decided on lap 1, if not on Saturday… The dirty side of track fears of McLaren drivers materialized, both lost track positions, Hamilton to Raikkonen, Alonso to both BMWs. This ruined Alonso’s chances for a win, and all he did was praying for miracle. Even if he would not say that after the race, it was quite obvious, he tried more less nothing to get ahead of Heidfeld …
Massa won (or Kimi lost) the race on Saturday. Massa’s last qualifying lap was excellent while Kimi made a small mistake. There was to be no fight for position on the track between the Ferrari team mates. This time Kimi had no luck during pit stops and that was it, really. Raikkonen actually looked stronger and faster, it looked like he was able to up the pace any time he wanted. He posted the fastest lap time on lap 57, on the slower hard tyre…
McLarens probably performed a bit better than they expected on this track. But it was not enough. Ferrari’s softer tyre strategy caught McLaren by surprise and worked. Alonso made very bad start and raced average race. Podium was gifted to him by underperforming Kubica’s car and Hamilton’s tyre failure. Hamilton on the other hand was lucky to finish the race and lucky to score the as many points as he did. Questions have to be asked, how come this is the second time in 3 races that his tyre gave way …
BMW wasted a chance for podium and nice point haul. Heidfeld can’t complain about 4th, but after the start they made they sure could have hoped for more. Unfortunately for them Kubica’s car did not work well ruining his race strategy. Hedifeld lost his track position after first round of pit stops and that was it. Hamilton’s problems lifted him to 4th, Kubica still managed a point.
Renault smelled a chance for getting better of Heidfeld for a while, but 6th place for Kovalainen is a good result nevertheless. Fisichella ruined Trulli’s race right at the start and did not show much after that. He is now 2 points behind Kovalainen in the standings and that is not good when there are at least 3 guys in contention for 2 race seats in 2008.
Nico Rosberg scored 2 excellent points for Williams after being quick for the whole weekend. Alex Wurz did not do too bad either. Overall this was a good weekend for the team.
Red Bull again faced the reliability issues with Webber’s car being the only one retiring from the race. Coulthard complained about some technical problems on the radio during the warm up lap too. His car was OK though and he managed 10th place.
Toyota probably hoped for some points after Trulli’s qualifying result. Fisichella however put an end to his chances. R. Schumacher did much better in the race than he did in qualifying but I think, that he did not do his race seat chances beyond this season too many favours…
Hondas could not expect much after being demoted to the back of the grid. Button however managed to climb from 22th up to 13th. That shows to me, that overtaking is possible if a driver is willing to try… Barrichello’s did not seem to work as well as Button’s, all that can he be happy with is finishing ahead of Sato.
Davidson’s managed excellent 11th on the grid for Super Aguri. But the Fisichella Trulli collision at the start also lost both Aguris several places on the grid and also damaged Davidson’s car. Pity after such a good grid position, however with no retirements and the performance of the cars ahead, they did not stand much chance of points at this race.
Liuzzi brought his Toro Rosso home finally, and in 15th, not bad. Vettel has yet to prove himself, so far he is lagging behind Liuzzi quite a bit…
Spykers, though both classified again did not manage to bring both cars to the finish line. Sutil lost several laps with technical difficulties and his car completely broke down on the last lap. Yamamoto is happy with finishing his first race for the team. He should set his goals a bit higher now, for the remainder of the season.
Here are few video clips:
Hamilton’s Tyre Troubles
Massa’s Finish
Related: Turkish GP Race Result
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