Felipe Massa Takes First Grand Prix Win In Turkey

Brazilian Felipe Massa withstood the heat of the Turkish Grand Prix, capitalising on his first F1 pole position by taking the chequered flag. However, Massa’s Bridgestone-equipped Ferrari was upstaged by fierce fighting for second place between defending champion, Renault’s Fernando Alonso (Michelin), and Michael Schumacher in the closing stages of the race. Despite driving a consistent race, Honda’s Jenson Button finished fourth. The result puts Alonso 12 points clear at the top of the drivers’ championship.

While Massa successfully controlled first position for the whole race, Schumacher’s chances of getting better than third position were scuppered by a traffic jam outside the Ferrari pit.

The garage gridlock occurred when the Ferrari team decided to send both teams to the pits following the deployment of the safety car after Vitantonio Liuzzi (Torro Rosso) spun out on lap 14. Alonso overtook the static Schumacher while the former world champion waited for Massa’s car to be refuelled.

Following the race Fernando Alonso told journalists: “I think we are in Michelin and Bridgestone’s hands because at the end of the day, I think the cars are at their maximum development now. In the last part of the championship, I don’t think you can find extra tenths or two tenths in the car, while the tyres can give you more than half a second so I think that as we have already said and we all know, the tyres will be the deciding point in the championship.

Earlier in the day Felipe Massa told Bridgestone guests that he was aiming to beat the “blue and yellows,” the colours of both the Renault Team and Michelin.

But both Alonso and Massa’s comments are exactly the kind of remarks that caused critics to complain that tyre talk has overshadowed both driver and vehicle performance coverage in the media. It remains to be seen if tyres will gain the same level of media coverage (an important return on investment) when the sport effectively becomes a control tyre series next season.