Sultan of Istanbul – Massa!!!

Massa has made a habit of winning the Turkish GP. On Sunday Massa drove a perfect race from pole to make it three in a row at Istanbul Park, Turkey. After Schumacher, it is Massa who has registered 3 wins in a row in a circuit.

The build-up to the Turkish GP was not all rosy 15 day gap between Barcelona & Istanbul races saw a lot of action go on off the track. There was sad news from Japanese team, Super Aguri as they announced their retirement. They would be missed as a racing outfit by new, upcoming drivers & engineers if not by the podium. Anyway, as is said in Japan Sayonara Super Aguri!!!

Coming back to the race, it was an eventful one. Not in terms of yellow flags or crashes, most of the drivers made it thru to the chequered flag. Massa as expected made a clean start but his team mate did not have such a good one.

Kimi choose to take the inside line to turn one. Hekki on P2 also choose the same. Both came close to their comfort zones & had a slight bump. While Kimi lost a bit of his front wing, Hekki suffered a puncher to his left rear tyre which meant his race was ruined & had to finish at a poor 12^th. Kimi choose not to change his nose so drove the race a bit subdued.

While characteristically most teams choose a 2 pit stop at Istanbul Park, Lewis went in with an aggressive 3 stop strategy. Thou it didn’t pay him much; he was satisfied & found his way back to the podium.

The only other big incident of the race was of Fisi in the force India car crashing into the back of Kazuki in the Williams car. DC for a change gave way to a much stronger & faster McLaren car of Hekki to pass him from the inside. Thanks a lot DC. We had a better race. Maintain this throughout.

BMW seemed to have a mixed day as they struggled to get the tyres to optimum temperatures. Both BMW drivers finished with points against their names. It was really good to hear the BMW engineers tell Kubica that they are racing Lewis, but so happened the BMWs finished 17+ seconds behind the podium finishers. Says something about their confidence in the car & driver! Nick on the other hand qualified on Saturday in 9^th so he did well to get up to 5^th.

Renault as always had a good race in comparison to the car they are having, courtesy Fernando Alonso. He too finished in points in 6^th place. His team mate had an average race & that is where the car actually belongs.

A great weekend for the RBR Renault team, both Webber & DC finishing 7^th & 9^th respectively. First time this season they managed to qualify to Q3. A good day for the Toyota team, they managed a double finish too.

A special day for Rubens Barrichello as he recorded most starts in F1 history, 257!! What an achievement. He has come a long way since he started racing 1993. 15 Yrs of F1 what a legend. Take a bow Rubens. Honda like all other teams had a good outing today with double finish.

STR Ferrari team had a not so good day. Bourdais caught one of the bumps at a turn & saw his race ending in a tame way. His teammate Vettel didn’t have a good day either as he finished last.

So the points tally at the end of the day show Ferrari 19 points clear of BMW & a further 2 points off McLaren in the Constructors’ Championship. In the Drivers’ standings it is still Kimi 7 points off Massa & Hamilton. Kubica & Nick are in strong 4^th & 5^th positions.

All in all a great race to watch out for at Monaco in 15 days time. Till then & now Drive safely.