Turkish Grand Prix Round 5 11/05/08

[MikeLane]

Turkish Grand Prix

Hamilton tries bold strategy but Massa makes it three in a row

Istanbul Park – May 11th, 2008 – Round 5.

By

Mike Lane

F1 Correspondent.

…………………………………………………………………..

This was a special day for Honda driver, Rubens Barrichello, as he made his 257th start in a Formula 1 race to beat the record held by Patrese.


On a circuit, which seems to pinch the cars together as they take the first turn after the start and the two Ferraris split by the two McLarens at the front, it was going to be interesting to see the result.

The grid order was:-

1. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)……………………….2. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren).
3. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)…………………4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari).
5. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)……………...6. Mark Webber (Red Bull).
7. Fernando Alonso (Renault)………………….8. Jarno Trulli (Toyota).
9. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)……………..10. David Coultard (Red Bull).
11. Nico Rosberg (Williams)…………………..12. Rubens Barrichello (Honda).
13. Jenson Button (Honda)…………………….14. Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso).
15. Timo Glock (Toyota)………………………16. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams).
17. Nelsinho Piquet (Renault)………………….18. Sebastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso).
19. Adrian Sutil (Force India)………………….20. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India).



Massa had won here the last two years and each time from pole position. Could he make it three in a row?

As the drivers held on the grid, there was a long hold before the starting sequence got underway but when it did, Massa got a good start, as did Hamilton who moved from third to second place.

Raikkonen tried to go down the inside of Kovalainen who kept the racing line through this first turn and stayed ahead of the Finn. Kubica was also in the same battle and it was he who emerged third behind Hamilton.

Further down the field as cars came through the pinch point of this first turn, Fisichella came in too hot it would seem and hit the rear of Nakajima. The Force India car launched itself across the bonnet of the Williams and crashed out of the race.

Turn one has always caused problems and as predicted this race was no different.

Despite Nakajima making it back to the pits, he was unable to continue and retired from the race.

Sutil in the other Force India was also forced into the pits for a new nose cone but was able to continue.

The Safety car was deployed whilst Fisichella’s car was recovered and when the pits reopened Kovalainen had to go in for a rear puncture, which seems to have been caused when Raikkonen and he had their close encounter in turn one.

This unscheduled pit-stop was to prove costly for Kovalainen as he re-emerged in last place.

On the same lap, Raikkonen overtook Alonso and so the order at this stage was Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Raikkonen, Alonso, Webber, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Coultard, Trulli, Button, Barrichello, Glock, Bourdais, Piquet Sutil and Kovalainen.

At the front, Hamilton was chasing Massa hard and by the 10th lap was clearly faster than him at that stage.

On lap 13 Hamilton posted the fastest lap of the race, so far, whilst his unlucky team-mate, Kovalainen, got past Sutil for 17th place.

By lap16, as Alonso took his first pit-stop, Hamilton had cut Massa’s lead to 0.7 seconds. Alonso rejoined in 10th place but then Hamilton took his first pit-stop which seemed a little early and cast a bit of doubt, perhaps, on his qualifying position.

As Hamilton rejoined in 6th position, Kovalainen moved up to 16th, ahead of Vettel.

On lap 20, now clearly in the window for the first pit-stops, Massa took his stop as did Kubica.

Raikkonen put in a fast session and on lap 21 completed the fastest lap so far and was clearly trying to gain position in his pit-stop.

The following lap he made his first stop and as a result of his effort moved up into 3rd place, ahead of Kubica.

Meanwhile Hamilton was charging hard and on lap 24 executed a great overtaking move on Massa to take the lead. Having made the pass, Hamilton began to pull away quite quickly and appeared to have a lighter car.

Once again yellow flags were out, for Bourdais this time, as he beached his Toro Rosso. The manner of his exit seemed to point to mechanical failure rather than driver error.

On lap 33 Hamilton made his 2nd pit-stop and again put hard tyres on, confirming that he was on a three stop strategy. This was a highly unusual strategy as the consensus is that two stops are the fastest race strategy in Turkey.

Drivers have to use both tyre compounds in each race, i.e. hard and soft options. Hamilton had started on hard tyres and this was his third set of hard tyres, so he had to be on a three-stop strategy.

In order for this strategy to have a chance Hamilton would need to push hard in order to make up the extra time lost in the 3rd stop, and so it was to prove.

Further down the field there were some good individual races taking place and plenty of overtaking. In particular Kovalainen and Glock were competing hard, as were Piquet and Button.

On the 35th and 36th laps Kovalainen got past Glock, whilst Piquet gained a place from Button. Kovalainen also managed to overtake Button but his early puncture had ruined his real race potential at the front.

On lap 41 both Massa and Kubica took their last pit-stop which once again put Raikkonen in the lead, temporarily. The real race was between him and Hamilton for 2nd place and at this stage there was only 1.5 seconds between them.

For Hamilton’s strategy to work it was essential that he kept in touch with Raikkonen or even got past him. The final pit-stop for Hamilton was going to be a ‘splash and dash affair’ which would be therefore shorter than Raikkonen’s, but nevertheless he needed to push.

When Raikkonen took his final pit-stop on lap 44, Hamilton did indeed push and one lap later came in for his final stop. Soft tyres went on and the McLaren mechanics were faultless in their drill.

Massa was now in the lead with Raikkonen in 2nd place, but when Hamilton rejoined the circuit his strategy had worked and he was ahead of Raikkonen in 2nd place.

Now the question was whether Hamilton could keep Raikkonen behind him.

By lap 52 Massa had a 5.5 second lead over Hamilton and Raikkonen was only 0.7 seconds behind the McLaren driver.

Clearly the soft tyres were not working so well for Hamilton and during the last few laps he was put under considerable pressure by the Ferrari driver.
In the end he held on to claim 2nd place with what had clearly been an unusual strategy.

Massa won the race in 1hr26min49.451secs with a faultless performance at this favourite circuit of his and made it three in a row.

The final race order was:-

1st Massa……………. 1hr26:49.451
2nd Hamilton…………+3.7s
3rd Raikkonen……….+4.2s
4th Kubica………….. +21.6s
5th Heidfeld…………+38.7s
6th Alonso………….. +53.7s
7th Webber…………. +64.2s
8th Rosberg………… +71.4s
9th Coultard…………+75.2s
10th Trulli………….. +76.3s
11th Button…………. +1 lap
12th Kovalainen……. +1 lap
13th Glock…………. +1 lap
14th Barrichello……..+1 lap
15th Piquet…………. +1 lap
16th Sutil…………… +1 laps
17th Vettel…………..+1 laps
18th Bourdais………. +34 laps
19th Nakajima ………+57 laps
20th Fisichella……… +58 laps

After five rounds the Driver’s championship looks like this:-

Raikkonen……..35 points
Massa………….28
Hamilton………28
Kubica…………24
Heidfeld……….20
Kovalainen……14
Webber………..10
Trulli……………9
Alonso………….9
Rosberg………...8
Nakajima……….5
Button………….3
Bourdais………..2
Coultard………..0
Glock…………..0
Fisichella………0
Barrichello……..0
Piquet…………..0
Sato…………….0
Davidson……….0
Sutil…………….0
Vettel…………...0

The Constructor’s championship looks like this:-

Ferrari…………63 points
BMW Sauber….44
McLaren………24
Williams………13
Red Bull……….10
Toyota…………..9
Renault………….9
Honda…………..3
Toro Rosso……..2
Force India……..0
Super Aguri…….0


Massa loves this circuit and showed it to take the win for Ferrari, but McLaren showed they are close to the Ferraris for pace and the next two races at Monaco and Montreal should suit them better.

McLaren confirmed, following the race, that the three stop strategy was due to concerns about the possible structural failure of the tyres on Hamilton’s car. They therefore took the safe option. Presumably this is due to the way Hamilton uses his tyres, as Kovalainen was originally on a conventional two stop strategy.

Kovalainen was unlucky to pick up a puncture in the opening couple of laps, which ruined his race.

The BMW Saubers were a little quiet this time out but nevertheless took valuable points.

Alonso came a creditable 6th place and the Red Bulls put in a strong performance particularly with Webber’s 7th place.

There was no comfort for Honda here and Rubens Barrichello had to settle for 14th place on his record-breaking appearance.

Next we move to Monaco in two weeks time and will see whether this circuit will suit McLaren better than Ferrari.

Mike Lane

F1 Correspondent – Home Base - England