Usually, a typical Grand Prix tends to go like this: The fastest cars qualify in the front, the slowest cars in the back, the race starts, there is no on-track overtaking, the pit stops come around, gives a more heavily-fueled driver a few laps to make up some time on the more lightly-fueled driver ahead of him (if indeed there is a lighter-fueled driver in front), the former possibly ends up in front of the latter after his later pit stop, the faster cars lap the slower cars, and we can pretty much predict the final results of the race if everybody finishes.
Had it not been for some minor events and first-lap incidents, the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix would have been another predictable two-hour procession. However, there were minor ups and downs over the course of the weekend for the title contenders, which led to the GP being the most exciting and eventful race of the 2008 season so far.
Practice
Kimi's weekend started out on the wrong foot, as his gearbox suffered a glitch during Friday practice. He would miss out on valuable track time and, with the importance of setting up the car to be quick on two specifications of tyres, he would not be able to extract the maximum from the car in time for qualifying.
Qualifying
Massa put together a fantastic lap to put the car on pole. His ballsy driving style allows him to perform well at tracks with high-speed corners (Turn 8) and severe braking into slow corners (Turn 12). Rob Smedley commented that a person needs to have a pretty sick sense of humour to drive Turn 8 as quickly as Filipe does. With a history of winning from the front, you would have bet that he was fueled to get on pole, and that's exactly what he did. He was rather hesitant to make any bold predictions after qualifying, however, saying that the two McLarens and the sister Ferrari behind him might give him a tough afternoon on Sunday.
Heikki seemed to be the only happy guy at the post-qualifying press conference. He managed to put the car in second position and would start the race on the front row on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton put the car third on the grid and didn't seem too happy afterwards. He had driven his final hot-lap on the wrong tyres and also botched his lap. Perhaps he knew that his mistake in qualifying meant he would be running his lighter strategy against heavier cars on Sunday. In that case, he was probably going to lose a position to Kimi by the end of the race.
On another note, McLaren’s PR department is doing things quite well it would seem—Lewis was complaining after qualifying that the team made wrong tyre choice for Q3. A few hours later, he was quoted to say that ultimately, tyre choice was his decision and that he’s the only one who knows what’s going on in the car.
Kimi didn't put in a very good lap either, but managed to get himself to fourth on the grid.
The surprise in the top ten was Mark Webber's Red Bull. Even if he was light on fuel, getting into Q3 meant he had to wring the neck of that Red Bull around the Otodrome. And for a change, Coulthard was also in the top ten. Being 1.1s slower in Q3 than 9th place Heidfeld, you would bet that his car was fueled to the brim. He was hoping go deep into the race before pitting and score some points.
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