Ferrari remain bullish on titles chances

But the Frenchman is still adamant that Ferrari can fight for both titles despite Fernando Alonso increasing his lead over Michael Schumacher.

Schumacher's teammate Felipe Massa scored his maiden Formula One win in Istanbul after leading from pole position.

Schumacher, who had started alongside the Brazilian, had to settle for third place after a thrilling battle with Renault's Alonso, who benefited from a safety car period to jump ahead of his rival.

Ferrari looked the like the team to beat for most of the weekend, and if not for the safety car period, Schumacher believed a one-two was the most likely result.

The German, however, was forced to wait in line as both him and Massa pitted on the same lap, an opportunity Alonso seized to move into second.

Todt was left rueing the missed chance.

"We were obviously very pleased about the first pole position for Felipe, the first win for Felipe with Ferrari and he did a great race," said Todt after the race.

 "We are obviously a bit disappointed because we had the potential the could have allowed us to be first and second, but due to the safety car it probably made our race more difficult.

"It did not help Michael, so as I said we had the potential to be first and second, and we finished first and third."

Although pitting at the same time as Massa cost Schumacher all his chances of victory, Todt believes they made the right decision.

"I think there would be five times more people to this press conference if I had asked Felipe o let Michael through," said Todt. "That would have been the event of the race weekend. So I am sorry for you that we did not change the order in the pits."

World champion Alonso ended a run of races that had seen Schumacher reduce his advantage from 25 to 10 points. After the Turkish race, the Spaniard is 12 points ahead of his German rival with four races remaining.

Todt believes the potential showed by Ferrari in Istanbul is a good omen for the races ahead.

"We have four races to go. We had a demonstration that our car was very quick during the weekend - first row, first and second quickest time during the race and we had very strong Bridgestone tyres.

"So I am convinced that we still have a chance to fight for both championships," Todt added.