MASSA'S TURN TO WIN
(Image taken from Yahoo)
The Turkish Grand Prix, the newest race on the F1 calender. Started up last year with a pretty spectacular race won by Kimi Raikonen with Alsonso coming second, Montoya in 3rd and both Jenson and DC in the points. Well since then Montoya has quit F1 and Raikonen's off form...and I wound up watching this year's Istanbul race on the other side of the Channel.
Well this year DC wound up as one of the early casualties in qualifying originally getting ranked 17th before being pushed up to 16th after Albers got dumped to the back of the grid after an engine change. Jenson survived the second session though Barrichello and Rosberg got eliminated at that stage. In the final stage it was Michael that made the early running then both Renaults beat him only for Massa to grab his first ever pole position after a late duel with Michael. Button was to start 7th only for Ralf to get thown back ten splaces for an engine change, putting him up to sixth.
In the race itself, well DC had a pretty uneventful time. OK so at least he finished the race and he did have some nice duels, particularly with Barrichello but overall he was really just left buzzing around the midfield, finishing off in 15th. Not an outing that'll remain in the Scotsman's memory banks particularly long, same with a lot of races this season.
Jenson had a much more solid race. An early nose change for Fisichella combined with a decent start got him as far as 4th and from there on in he looked top pressurise the top 3 but from mid way into the race it became obvious that he wasn't going to make the podium on this occassion but at least he could claim the title of "best of the rest".
Jenson's problem was that the top three of Massa, Michael and Alonso just raced off into the distance and from there the Brazilian raced off into the lead. Some quality Renault strategy got Alonso ahead of his German rival into 2nd though and despite the tight racing between the championship contenders near the end of the race it was the Spaniard who held on. The tifosi could still be happy with Massa's first win of his career though, the first Grand Prix win by a Brazilian since his Ferrari predecessor Rubens Barrichello took the chequered flag in China '04.
At the end of that race the Championship looks like this: Alonso leading with 108 points, Michael in 2nd with 96, Massa 3rd with 62, Fisichella in 4th with 52, Raikonen 5th with 49, Jenson 6th with 36 and DC down to 12th with 14 points(Pedro de la Rosa edging him thanks to his 2nd place in Hungary).
Four races to go and the championship is still tight.
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