Massa wins as Alonso beats Schumacher
Felipe Massa seized his opportunity on Sunday to clinch his first victory in a thrilling Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Speed Park, the 25-year-old Brazilian making the most of his first pole position to race to the flag in his Ferrari
His teammate, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, finished third behind his title rival and defending champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who came home second in his Renault by just a car's length over the line.
On another sweltering afternoon in Turkey, where the track temperature touched 52 degrees Celsius and the air temperature hovered in mid thirties, Massa delivered a virtually faultless drive. It was the Sao Paulo driver's first win at the 67th attempt.
Briton Jenson Button finished fourth for Honda ahead of Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz. Italian Giancarlo Fisichella was sixth for Renault.
But the duel of the day, on an afternoon of great racing, many passing moves and plentiful incident, was the race-long battle between Alonso and Schumacher for second place.
At the start, Schumacher veered left from second place to spoil Alonso's surge forward from third and then had to respond again as Alonso tried to split the two Ferraris on the run to the first corner.
It was dramatic start but the outcome was that the two Ferraris led until a spin by Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi of Italy in his Scuderia Toro Rosso on lap 13 required the arrival of the Safety Car.
During this period, Ferrari chose to call both cars to the pits in a queue and this gave Alonso a chance to move up to second, which he took. The Ferrari team gave Schumacher a heavy fuel load, but though this enabled him to lead when the leaders pitted, it was not enough for him to come out in front after his second stop after 43 laps.
All of this set up a thrilling and desperate battle over the closing laps when both men fought tigerishly for second place, Schumacher once threatening to pass the champion and current leader but being forced to ease off.
The opening lap also delivered a number of other incidents with Alonso's Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella spinning and causing chaos through the rest of the field. This caused trouble for several other drivers, notably Finn Kimi Raikkonen, whose race for McLaren was ended effectively in the incident.
Raikkonen said: "I don't know what happened. Someone hit the rear of the car and I had a puncture and some other damage and I think I damaged the car more when I was driving back to the pits. I tried to avoid David, but there was nothing I could do."
PROVISIONAL RACE RESULTS
The Turkish Grand Prix
Istanbul, Turkey;
58 laps;
Weather: Sunny.
Classified:
Pos Driver Team Time
1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1h28:51.082
2. Alonso Renault (M) + 5.575
3. M.Schumacher Ferrari (B) + 5.656
4. Button Honda (M) + 12.334
5. de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes (M) + 45.908
6. Fisichella Renault (M) + 46.594
7. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) + 59.337
8. Barrichello Honda (M) + 1:00.034
9. Trulli Toyota (B) + 1 lap
10. Webber Williams-Cosworth (B) + 1 lap
11. Klien Red Bull-Ferrari (M) + 1 lap
12. Kubica BMW-Sauber (M) + 1 lap
13. Speed Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M) + 1 lap
14. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (M) + 2 lap
15. Coulthard Red Bull-Ferrari (M) + 3 laps
Fastest lap: M.Schumacher, 1:28.005
Not classified/retirements:
Driver Team On lap
Albers MF1-Toyota (B) 46
Sato Super Aguri-Honda (B) 41
Rosberg Williams-Cosworth (B) 23
Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda (B) 25
Liuzzi Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M) 12
Raikkonen McLaren-Mercedes (M) 1
Monteiro MF1-Toyota (B) 1
World Championship standings, round 14:
Drivers: Constructors:
1. Alonso 108 1. Renault 160
2. M.Schumacher 96 2. Ferrari 158
3. Massa 62 3. McLaren-Mercedes 89
4. Fisichella 52 4. Honda 58
5. Raikkonen 49 5. Toyota 28
6. Button 36 6. BMW-Sauber 26
7. Montoya 26 7. Red Bull-Ferrari 16
8. Barrichello 22 8. Williams-Cosworth 10
9. Heidfeld 19 9. Toro Rosso-Cosworth 1
10. R.Schumacher 18
11. Coulthard 14
12. de la Rosa 14
13. Trulli 10
14. Villeneuve 7
15. Webber 6
16. Rosberg 4
17. Klien 2
18. Liuzzi 1
All timing unofficial
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