Turkish GP 2007: Massa wins again as tyre failure stops Hamilton

Felipe Massa won the 2007 Turkish GP from pole position, leading a one-two for Ferrari. Second was Kimi Räikkönen, who also set the fastest lap. Third was Fernando Alonso in the McLaren. The podium was decided 15 laps from the end, when the right front tyre on Lewis Hamilton's car came apart and the championship leader dropped from third to fifth.

It was Massa's second win in a row at Istanbul Park and, according to Wikipedia, his fifth Grand Prix win. He had taken all five from pole. He later described the track as the place where his career had turned around.

Massa got away well from grid position 1 and kept the lead. Behind him, Räikkönen moved past Hamilton from grid position 3 into P2. According to crash.net, both McLarens were on the dirty side of the grid. Things went even worse for Alonso: he started from P4 and immediately lost out to both BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld. That left him in P6, stuck behind Heidfeld. After the opening lap he was already 3.5 seconds behind the Ferraris, according to crash.net, and on lap 3 he nearly lost the car.

At Turn 1, Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) tipped Jarno Trulli's Toyota into a spin. Trulli dropped to the back of the field. Anthony Davidson (Super Aguri) had started eleventh and slipped to P14. According to grandprix.com, he could not get past Vitantonio Liuzzi (Toro Rosso) until lap 24.

The two leading teams took different approaches: according to grandprix.com, the Ferraris started on the softer compound and the McLarens on the harder one. As was usual in that era, fuel load was the main factor in determining stint length.

Kubica was the first of the leading group to pit, at the end of lap 13 according to crash.net, which initially dropped him back. Heidfeld stopped at the end of lap 18, Alonso a lap later. Despite a slower stop, the Spaniard rejoined ahead of both BMWs. The first round of stops therefore won back the places he had lost at the start.

Massa stopped after Räikkönen and stayed in front. Hamilton stayed out longer, briefly took the lead on lap 20 and then made his stop. Heikki Kovalainen then led for a lap in the Renault – according to crash.net, only the second time he had led a race in his career. From lap 22 Massa was back in front. At the second stops, too, he pitted after his teammate, according to Wikipedia, keeping Räikkönen behind him. During the second round of stops Alonso led for one lap on lap 43, before Massa took over again all the way to the flag.

Hamilton had stopped later than the two Ferraris and closed in on Räikkönen as a result. He could not pass him, though, so it was heading for P3. Then came the failure, which grandprix.com dates to lap 43: at high speed in Turn 9, the tread on his right front tyre delaminated. According to crash.net, the loose rubber destroyed the endplates on his front wing. Hamilton went into the run-off area and limped back to the pits with the tyre flailing, nearly hitting the wall on the way, according to grandprix.com.

After the tyre change he was behind Alonso and Heidfeld. With the damaged wing he had to fend off Kovalainen in the closing laps, but crossed the line just ahead of the Finn. At the front it stayed calm: Massa won by 2.275 seconds from Räikkönen, with Alonso finishing 26.181 seconds behind the winner. Räikkönen set the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap with a 1:27.295.

Further back, Nico Rosberg took seventh place for Williams. He had passed Kubica, who dropped back after his second stop at the end of lap 37 and just held on to a point in eighth. David Coulthard (Red Bull) finished tenth. According to crash.net, he had already had gearbox problems on the formation lap.

There were only two retirements:

• Mark Webber (Red Bull) retired after 9 laps with a hydraulic failure. According to crash.net, it was already his fifth retirement of the season.
• Adrian Sutil (Spyker) stopped after 53 laps with low fuel pressure.

Winner of the day, alongside Massa, was above all Jenson Button. He started his Honda from P21 and finished 13th. With eight places gained, he made up more ground than anyone else in the field. His teammate Rubens Barrichello had been given a ten-place grid penalty for an engine change and gained five positions. Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) gained four. Heidfeld took five points in fourth, making him the best driver behind the two top teams.

Losers, besides Webber, included above all Trulli: after his spin at Turn 1 he could only finish 16th, seven places below his grid position. Hamilton and Kubica each lost three positions. The young Sebastian Vettel finished 19th in the Toro Rosso, one lap down.

In the 2007 standings, Hamilton stayed in front on 84 points. Alonso, however, closed to 79 points, having been seven points behind before the race, according to Wikipedia. Massa moved past Räikkönen (68) into P3 with 69 points. Heidfeld remained fifth on 47 points. With five races to go, four drivers could still become world champion. According to crash.net, it was also Alonso's 100th Grand Prix.

In the constructors' championship, our data has Ferrari on 137 points ahead of BMW Sauber (77) and Renault (36). McLaren is listed there with zero points. That reflects a later development: on 13 September 2007 the FIA World Motor Sport Council excluded the team from the 2007 constructors' championship over the espionage affair involving confidential Ferrari data. Hamilton and Alonso kept their drivers' points (according to Autosport).

Three weeks earlier in Hungary, Hamilton had been the big winner. Istanbul showed how quickly that can change: one tyre failure was enough to blow the title race wide open again.