Bridgestone Motorsport wrap for 12th May
Massa's Turkish delight but Hamilton closes the gap
Turkish Grand Prix
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Felipe Massa's extraordinary form at the Turkish Grand Prix has continued, with the Ferrari driver winning for the third straight year at the weekend.
Having taken pole position - also for the third year running - he was never headed, controlling the race from the front for the 58 laps.
Britain's Lewis Hamilton tried an innovative tyre strategy in an effort to stay with the Ferrari, and it worked. While most of the rest of the grid started on the medium-compound Bridgestone tyres and used a two-stop pit strategy, the McLaren driver opted to start on the harder compound and stopped three times during the race.
He finished less than four seconds behind Massa but, more importantly, pushed defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen into third place. That cut the Finnish driver's title lead to just seven points, with Hamilton and Massa sharing second place with 28 points.
"I'm thrilled to have come second from third [on the grid]," Hamilton said.
"We knew it was going to be tough to challenge the Ferraris. We were hoping to get some points and finishing in the top five was good. But the balance of the car was good and I kept pushing and pushing, so I'm happy."
BMW Sauber appeared to have lost ground to the leaders with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld only managing fourth and fifth places. Behind them, two-time champion Fernando Alonso finished sixth for Renault, winning a battle with Australia's Mark Webber who took his fourth points finish in a row for the Red Bull team.
Heikki Kovalainen had an eventful race. He started from the front row, but suffered a puncture after being clipped by Raikkonen on the first lap. He pitted the McLaren for new Bridgestones and then had to fight his way back into the race from last place, passing the Williams of Nico Rosberg for eighth in the dying stages before handing the place back with a late fuel stop.
"Today we saw a very interesting race with many strategies and different tyre choices," said Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development.
"There was a lot of variation in which order drivers used the hard and medium compounds and this made for an exciting Grand Prix. We did see three cars finish the race after making only one stop, so durability was certainly strong for the tyres for these competitors."
The race's fastest lap, a 1min 26.506secs, was set by Raikkonen using the medium Bridgestone compound tyre, while the second fastest lap - just two one-hundredths of a second slower - was set by Hamilton using the harder compound.
The teams now prepare for the glamour of Monaco, with the race around the streets of Monte Carlo on May 25th.
Race Results
1. Felipe Massa (Brz) Ferrari one hour 26 minutes 49.451 seconds
2. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes 3.779 secs
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari +4.271
4. Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber +21.945
5. Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber +38.741
6. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault +53.724
7. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull-Renault +1:04.229
8. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams-Toyota +1:11.406
In other results...
Defending V8 Supercar Champion Garth Tander now leads the 2008 title-chase after the weekend's three races at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia.
Driving a Bridgestone-sponsored Holden Racing Team Commodore, Tander recorded two second places and a third to leapfrog fellow Holden driver Rick Kelly and take the championship lead by 14 points.
Ford's Mark Winterbottom jumped into third place overall after winning all three races at the weekend to trail Tander by just 24 points with ten rounds of the championship remaining.