Turkish Grand Prix: Mixed Feelings for Ferrari as Hamilton, McLaren Surprise

On the surface, this year's Turkey Grand Prix didn't bring much surprise: Felipe Massa was expected to be the man to beat this weekend (which he was), Lewis Hamilton was expected to bounce back from an average start to this season (which he did), and Ferrari and McLaren were expected to scrap for pole and eventually the win (which they did - sort of). But ever since the lights went out, this was no ordinary Grand Prix.

First of all we had Kimi Raikkonen lose position as he fought with Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren into the first corner. That fight proved to be more influential than initially thought, as a few laps later it became apparent that the Ferrari driver clipped the McLaren's tyre with his front wing. As Kovalainen came in to replace his tyre, it was clear his race was all but over.

After the first few laps, with Massa leading Hamilton and Kubica, and Raikkonen fourth, many would have been excused for thinking that would be the status quo more or less until the end of the race. All those theories came to a screeching halt, when Hamilton pitted his McLaren in the 16th lap - a good 3 laps before any of the other top-4 runners. His quick stop revealed that there may be a possibility he was running a 3-stopper - a bold and aggressive move, designed to make the most of a circuit where Ferrari clearly had the upper hand all weekend. The rest of the first round of pit-stops went more or less as expected, with Raikkonen staying a few more laps than all the other front-runners, and coming out in front of Robert Kubica to take 3rd place.

While the rest of us were wondering what exactly McLaren had up their sleeve, Hamilton (in 2nd place behind Massa), knew that if their gamble was to work he would have to pass the obviously slower Massa and make up some ground before the next round of pit stops. He did just that in lap 24, with a risky move down the inside of the Brazilian into turn 12, Massa having to obviously jerk his Ferrari aside to avoid contact. From then on it was pedal to the floor for the young Brit, who was lapping between 0.500 - 1s faster than anybody else on the track.

That, however did not last very long and Hamilton brought his car in the pits again on lap 33. Back out in 3rd place, Hamilton did not make as much of his second stint as he should have, and his inability to gain more ground in the first few laps after the stop put him possibly in contention for 2nd place, but clearly Massa was out of reach. As Raikkonen cleared the air by pitting on lap 44, the Brit raced through one heck of a lap, to come into the pits on lap 45, and eventually come out in front of the Finn.

It was an exciting sprint to the end of the race with Hamilton finishing 3.7s behind Massa and only 0.3s in front of Raikkonen. BMW Sauber kept their good form to finish 4th (Kubica) and 5th (Heidfeld), and Alonso, Webber and Rosberg respectively completed the points-scoring positions.

So where exactly does that leave us? Well, on the one hand, Hamilton would have been happy to cement his place back on the podium. However, he lost his 2nd position in the driver's championship to Felipe Massa (equal points, Massa has one more win) and I am sure he would've wanted to put a larger dent into Raikkonen's lead. Team McLaren cannot possibly be happy with the 8 points they came away with, however, they did make the most of a circuit which does not usually favour them, and have Monaco and Canada to look forward to, where they are expected to have the upper hand. As far as Raikkonen is concerned, I'm sure we was aware Massa had an advantage coming to this track, but would have probably wanted to finish second. However, he does retain quite a healthy championship lead - a lead which he would like to keep heading into Monaco (one of his favourite tracks). Team Ferrari certainly came into Istanbul hoping for a one-two, and bar the creativity of McLaren, would have certainly had it. The bad news for them is that McLaren managed to snatch second place in a track which is generally more suited to the scarlet cars. All Ferrari can do is hope they can do the same in the next two races where all odds are that McLaren would have the upper hand.  

I think the only clear winner from this Grand Prix was Felipe Massa. He came to a circuit he loves, enjoyed the weekend, put his car and pole and drove the race fantastically to a win, which put him back into the title race after a rocky start to the season. Maybe the race was a little more exciting than he would have wanted, but that's why we all love F1!