Disappointed Raikkonen sore after crash

A first lap collision put paid to the hopes of Raikkonen, winner from pole position of last year's inaugural race at the Istanbul Park circuit.

The Finn was caught up in a six-car shunt at turn one after Giancarlo Fisichella spun and was left facing the oncoming cars.

Raikkonen, hit by Toro Rosso's Scott Speed, crawled back to the pits with a shredded left rear tyre. Shortly after returning to the track, he ploughed into the tyre wall.

"It got very messy at the start," said Raikkonen. "I tried to avoid a spinning Fisichella, but then Speed hit my left rear tyre causing a puncture. I drove for almost a whole lap with a damaged tyre in order to get back to the pits to see what could be done.

"The team changed my tyre, but I think the car must have incurred quite a lot of damage at this point. When I re-joined the race, I came into Turn 4, had no rear end grip, got sideways, ran out of road, hit the tyre wall and that was it.

"My back is a bit sore but nothing to worry about. I'm obviously disappointed that my race was over so quickly, but there was nothing we could do."

Teammate Pedro de la Rosa completed another solid race to finish in fifth position, having started from 11th.

"A good result coming from 11th position," said de la Rosa. "There was mayhem at the first corner following Fisichella's spin and I just made it through despite lots of debris on the track.

"It was a tough race with the one-stop strategy as I had to look after my rear tyres and this made it challenging to be consistently quick. However my race pace was good and I could even overtake a couple of cars. With a higher grid position a better outcome of the race would have been possible."