Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/27/sports/prix.php
ISTANBUL For the second race in a row, and for the second year in a row in Turkey, Formula One delivered an action-packed, suspenseful race at the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday.
ISTANBUL For the second race in a row, and for the second year in a row in Turkey, Formula One delivered an action-packed, suspenseful race at the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday.
And for the second race in a row, the winner was a driver who had never won a race before.
Felipe Massa can thank his Ferrari, his skill and his luck in driving a perfect race from beginning to end to win his first race after 67 contested.
"I have been working so hard in my whole career to get this moment, and it is just amazing," Massa said. "Just looking back at everything I did in my life to get here, and suddenly I am here. It is very emotional for me."
The 25-year-old Brazilian, who could barely hold back his tears on the victory podium, cried for a moment during the press conference.
Skill and luck also decided the race for the second- and third-place finishers, Fernando Alonso in a Renault and Michael Schumacher in the other Ferrari. That battle was the main attraction of the race, as it pitted the first- and second-place drivers in the standings against each other from start to finish.
Schumacher started second, but finished third, as Alonso benefited from the confusion of a safety-car period to pass Schumacher and held off the German in the grueling last 15 laps of wheel-to-wheel racing.
The two crossed the finish line with Alonso only a car nose ahead and were timed at eight-thousandths of a second apart.
"I was looking for my opportunity somehow at the exit," Schumacher said of the last corner, "but the straight is too short from start to finish to make up for it."
Alonso widened his lead in the championship by two points, at 108 to Schumacher's 96, with four races left.
"It's good, but I was hoping to be more competitive and try to win the race," Alonso said.
While Massa got off to a perfect start from his first Formula One pole position, Alonso and Schumacher battled it out, trading positions briefly in the first corner before Schumacher regained second.
Behind them, Giancarlo Fisichella in the other Renault locked his brakes and spun. It was the beginning of a chain reaction involving six cars. Kimi Raikkonen in a McLaren-Mercedes, having avoided Fisichella, was struck by Scott Speed in a Toro Rosso and his left rear tire was shredded.
Raikkonen and the other cars returned to the pits and the race continued uninterrupted, although the track was covered with debris. Raikkonen rejoined the race and immediately crashed and destroyed his car.
After six laps, Massa led Schumacher by 3.2 seconds, while Alonso sat third, 5.4 seconds behind Schumacher. Then on lap nine, Schumacher began a string of four fastest race laps and came to within 2.2 seconds of Massa.
Just as it looked as if he might catch his teammate, and with Alonso nearly 10 seconds behind, luck - for Alonso and against Schumacher - reshaped the race.
On lap 13, an axle on Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso locked and the driver spun and stalled. His car sat perched on the edge of a track at the exit to Turn 1, in a position that was so dangerous that other cars coming through the corner nearly struck it.
The safety car was deployed and the top five cars in the race made a pit stop, with both Ferraris pulling into the pits at the same time, Massa in the lead.
Alonso also made a pit stop, passing Schumacher's Ferrari just as his pit stop was ending.
Alonso then found more speed, and Schumacher made a mistake in Turn 8 and went off the track on lap 28 and lost several seconds to Alonso.
"My second stint, for whatever reason, I didn't manage to go to the speed that I was supposed to go," Schumacher said. "We had some blisters on the rear tires and a pretty heavy fuel load, and due to the fact that the car was difficult in Turn 8, I lost significant time."
Then, on lap 34, his fuel load lightening, Schumacher set the fastest lap of the race and began pulling up to Alonso. He again set the fastest lap of the race on lap 41 and finally came in for his second pit stop after lap 43 with 15 laps left and nearly a 10-second lead on Alonso.
He returned to the race just behind Alonso. For most of the last 13 laps, the two drivers were less than half a second apart. But each time Schumacher attacked Alonso, the Spaniard held him off.
"It was all about track position, not just speed," Alonso said. "I knew Michael only had two chances to overtake, in Turn 12 and Turn 14. That meant I could use the engine to get a bigger gap at those places by turning it up to maximum revs on the straights before, and it was enough to keep second place."
The first-time winner of the previous race, Jenson Button, driving for Honda, finished fourth.
"We just didn't have the pace of the Ferraris or Alonso in the Renault," he said, "but we know where we're weaker and where we're losing out to them."