Ferrari Scores Big in 2007 Turkish Formule One Grand Prix
Ferrari takes 1st and 2nd to dominate the 2007 Turkish F1 Grand Prix in Istanbul, Turkey.
Felipe Massa came in first. Kimi Raikkonen came in second. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso comes in third.
The qualifying round was like a tug-of-war match. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen looked to secure pole position over Fernando Alonso, but Lewis Hamilton made a speedy lap and beat out Raikkonen’s time by a fraction of a second. Just when Mclaren thought they had the first spot in the grid, a scorching Ferrari driven by Felipe Massa crossed the line just tenths of a second in front of Hamilton. Ferrari got 1st and 3rd positions on the clean side of the track, and McLaren got 2nd and 4th positions on the not-so-clean side of the track.
When the race started, Felipe Massa sped off and maintained first place while Kimi Raikkonen was able to get a jump on Lewis Hamilton to take 2nd position. Fernando Alonso got overtaken by two BMWs and dropped to sixth while Lewis Hamilton dropped to third spot. Eventually, Felipe Massa, who also won in Istanbul in last season’s Turksih Grand Prix, cruised to his first place victory without much challenge, scoring 10 points and improving his standing to 69 points and third place in the Drivers’ Championships, just 15 behind Lewis Hamilton, and still with 5 races and a maximum of 50 more points to race for.
“It’s amazing. The third time here in Istanbul but the second race in a row winning from pole. I love the track, I love the place and here is where my career made a switch and I started to win races and fight with the front runners. It is a very special place for me,” Massa commented.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen is satisfied with the 2nd place win gives him a total 68 points, and still looks to make a charge for the Drivers’ Championship in the last 5 races of the season.
“When your main rival is your team mate, there are less unknown factors and even less room to come up with something. However, the important thing is to have put two Ferraris in front of everyone else and, in any case, we have made up ground on the championship leader,” Raikkonen explained.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, and last seasons World F1 Champion, had to conjure up something special to recover from his poor start on the grid, which saw him drop two places, but he managed to squeeze out a good race and make it to the podium. Alonso’s points standing improves to 79, just 5 points behind his McLaren-Mercedez team mate Lewis Hamilton.
“It was not the plan to lose two places at the start, and so my race was pretty much over when I came into the first corner in sixth place. I was following Nick Heidfeld for 17 laps at the start, and it was very difficult to overtake him. Fortunately we were able to do this in the first round of pitstops and that was when my race could really start. Unfortunately I was 30 seconds down at that point, so third was a good result considering,” Alonso explained.
BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld was happy with the fourth place finish, and content just to have ran a good race.
“I am very happy about this result, as the team did a fantastic job. The race strategy, the tyre choice and the pit stops - everything worked perfectly. We made the most out of everything,” Heidfeld explained.
Lewis Hamilton knows he could’ve done better, but a tire failure on the 43rd lap of the Turkish Grand Prix definitely slowed him down. Luckily for Hamilton, he was able to manage the car back into the McLaren garage instead of retiring it to the gravel. And for that, he was able to maintain a 5th place finish and still score some points en route to the Drivers’ Championship.
“It was lucky that I didn’t put the car in the gravel and managed to control it back to the pits, as this meant that in the end I only lost two places. We still got some good points and I remain in the lead of the championship by five points, so it is not all bad,” Hamilton commented.
The Ferrari one-two victory in the 2007 Turkish Grand Prix closes the gap for the Constructors’ Championships to just 11 points behind McLaren-Mercedez. McLaren has 148 points to Ferrari’s 137.
The next race will be the Italian Grand Prix to be held this coming September at the Autodromo Nazionale in Monza, Italy — the home track of Scuderia Ferrari.
With Ferrari looking in top form plus the fact that they’ll be racing at their home track will definitely give the advantate to Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. Another one-two finish, and Formula One fans will definitely be treated to one of the most exciting Drivers’ Championship contentions in recent history with a four-way battle featuring all the drivers of Ferrari and McLaren.
However, in Monza, Italy, you can look to Ferrari as the favorites. After all, there’s nothing like a home track advantage to give you the right odds. I’d put my money on the prancing horse.
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