Luca Baldisserri, Ferrari Sporting Director isn’t happy. He says Ferrari could have easily finished one - two in Turkey if Felipe Massa kept Lewis Hamilton behind him for a couple of more laps. Lewis Hamilton caught and passed Massa on lap 23 in a much lighter car. Later of course Massa re took the position.

I’m not sure Baldisserri really knows how much faster a car is when light on fuel. After watching the pass a few times, Massa didn’t fight to the death over the position, but did keep his line as long as he should have before giving in to Hamilton and his faster car.

After the pass, Lewis Hamilton who was on a 3 stop strategy was 7 laps through his 16 lap session. That meant that he had 22 kilos of fuel left. Felipe Massa was only 4 laps into a 21 lap session and therefor his car had 48 kilos left. That’s 26 kilos more than Lewis Hamilton. That means that Hamilton is just about 9/10ths of a sec per lap faster than Massa. That’s just about a full second and in F1, that’s a lot faster.

Short of blocking Hamilton or maybe taking too many chances, he couldn’t hold Hamilton up. Massa was out to win the grand prix and compromising that position by continually defending against a faster car that in the end would not challenge him for the win is never a good idea.

Felipe Massa has turned his season around after 2 retirements in the first 2 races and up to now, but despite this turnaround (a turnaround where he has been better than Raikkonen over the last 3 races) his performance and results are pushed aside in favor of criticism.

Last 3 races:

Raikkonen

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This was race that could have been a little boring, but with Lewis Hamilton on a 3 stop strategy and more passing and re passing on the track than usual, there was plenty to watch. In the end, Felipe Massa does own Istanbul Park as he won his 3rd consecutive Turkish Grand Prix.

The race started in typical fashion with the cars bunching up into the first turn. Kovalainen and Raikkonen had a minor touch which slightly damaged Raikkonen’s front wing and punctured Kovalainen’s left rear causing a slow leak. Kovalainen after going in for a tire change re entered the circuit way back. Being loaded heavy with fuel and at the back of the grid, Kovalainen spent the rest of the day fighting hard to move up.

Even though bad luck hit Kovalainen, he put on a good show for us with some great passing. He and Timo Glock went back and forth for a while including a pass and re pass before Kovalainen’s faster McLaren got rid of Glock on the long straight. It was a bitter pill for Kovalainen because in the end 11th was all he could manage.

After Jarno Trulli was almost stopped after being held up in the first turn, Fisichella came storming up behind everyone and before he could even think of stopping his car, he was hard into the back of Nakajima and then up in the air and over top stopping dead in his tracks in the gravel trap. Nakajima with horrible damage to the rear of his car initially thought he could continue, but in the end, both he and Fisichella were the first lap casualties. There was something new however, Sebastian Vettel made it past lap one and actually finished the race.

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1. Massa Ferrari (B) 1h26:49.451
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 3.779
3. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) + 4.271
4. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) + 21.945
5. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) + 38.741
6. Alonso Renault (B) + 53.724
7. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1:04.229
8. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) + 1:11.406
9. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) + 1:15.270
10. R.Schumacher Toyota (B) + 1:16.344
11. Button Honda (B) + 1 lap
12. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) + 1 lap
13. Glock Toyota (B) + 1 lap
14. Barrichello Honda (B) + 1 lap
15. Piquet Renault (B) + 1 lap
16. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap
17. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) + 1 lap

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:26.506

Not classified/retirements:

Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 25
Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1
Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1

Tags: felipe massa, fernando alonso, kimi raikkonen, lewis hamilton, nick heidfeld, robert kubica, turkish grand prix

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“I own Istanbul Park” is what Felipe Massa says and so far he’s showing it. Mass claimed the pole for the Turkish Grand Prix in fine style after he really did command this weekend. His final lap of 1:27.617 was best and gives him his thrid consecutive pole in Turkey.

Beside him is Heikki Kovalainen who clearly has bounced back from his crash 2 weeks ago. Kovalainen will start 2nd next to team mate Lewis Hamilton who starts 3rd. At first it did seem strange, the tire choices for Lewis Hamilton was the hard compound which had shown up until that point to be the much slower tire. Hamilton wasn’t happy with how his car handled with the softer and chose the hard for his final flying lap. It was 1 10th slower than Kovalainen, but good enough for 3rd on the grid.

The McLaren still seems a bear to drive especially for Hamilton. Ever lap he was sliding and correcting, pushing, and correcting. The car looked all over the track at times, but Hamilton still managed a pretty good result.

Kimi Raikkonen on the other hand couldn’t get it together and never challenged for pole and starts 4th. He’s not going to like starting behind both McLarens and is going to have to push to get past them before Massa runs away.

Neither BMW-Sauber driver could come to grips with the track in qualifying with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld starting behind both McLarens. Kubica couldn’t do better than 5th and Heidfeld 9th. At one point is was tight for Heidfeld to get into Q3 and his last lap in Q2 was the only lap that got hm into Q3.

Red Bull had a great outing with both Webber and Coulthard getting into Q3. Not bad. Webber should be strong starting from 6th and Coulthard in 10th.

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Ferrari once again showed their dominance by finishing 1 - 2 in the second practice session today. Raikkonen who had gearbox problems in session 1 and only did 3 laps, had it repaired successfully in time for this second session.

Massa who was setting the fastest lap times early ended up with the 3rd fastest time on the day at 1:27.682. It was Lewis Hamilton who snuck into 2nd spot on a late fast lap just .036 seconds back of Raikkonen.

Hamilton is quick, but the McLaren still looks slow and clumsy through the slow speed corners suffering still from poor mechanical grip.

David Coulthard was a surprising 4th and didn’t have a crash with anyone, but Mark Webber did. Webber spun after riding the curbs and planted his car head on into the wall. This car is fragile. The impact wasn’t that great, but the damage to the car was pretty substantial. It was a curious crash because he buried the front end axle deep in the wall, but when bounced off, the front nose seemed totally in tact.

Robert Kubica who was typically quiet in practice finished with the 6th fastest time.

Although Hamilton pulled off the 2nd fastest time, the car doesn’t look great especially in the slow speed corners. I saw Lewis and Heikki lock the breaks a couple of times and saw lot of steering wheel correction, certainly more than Ferrari or BMW-Sauber.

Fernando Alonso was pretty quiet through practice, much quieter than in Spain obviously and maybe they aren’t quite where they were 2 weeks ago.

Friday Practice 2 Times

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Now that Super Aguri have withdrawn from F1, qualifying has been altered to reflect 2 less cars.

Today the FIA have confirmed that 5 cars will be eliminated in both Q1 and Q2 to even things out so that 10 cars remain and challenge for pole in Q3. The sporting regulations were initially written for a field of 24 cars with a plan B if the field dropped to 22. Now that the field is officially 20 cars, plan C had to be written.

The statement from the FIA was this:

“The Stewards, having received a report from the Technical Delegate note that 20 cars will participate in the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix.

“Therefore under article 33.1 of the 2008 Sporting Regulations, the Stewards have decided that only five cars will be excluded after Q1 and Q2 of the Qualifying Practice.”

That’s the news, and now the weather:

Tags: f1 qualifying, fia, grand prix weather, turkish grand prix

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Felipe Massa wants to win in Turkey to make it 3 years in a row. He has had a pretty good run there not only winning the last 2 races, but also getting poll and he is pretty clear saying it’s a special circuit to him and that there is ‘no 2 without 3′.

His car may complain a little having to use an engine for the second race and his gearbox on it’s 4th race. Massa doesn’t think this is an issue though and isn’t hiding his desire to win.

If Massa finds himself in 2nd place on the track behind Raikkonen will he try and get into position to attempt a pass or will ‘team orders’ prevent him?

I see something to this. In 2005 at the US Grand Prix, Rubens Barrichello was told on radio to slow and let Micheal Schumacher get close enough to pass him. This, as he says was the last straw and he left Ferrari at the end of the season.

Felipe Massa has faced criticism this year for erratic driving and his seat next year has been rumored to be available. Given that Massa wants to win and really isn’t passive enough to only be Raikkonen’s aid, it is conceivable that if ‘team orders’ prevent him from winning this race, Massa may want out himself at the end of 2008.

Tags: felipe massa, ferrari, kimi raikkonen, turkish grand prix

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On to Turkey and one of 2 anti-clockwise circuits on the F1 traveling roadshow. It is a circuit with a good combination of high speed and low speed corners and once again, passing is at a premium in Turkey. Turn 12 offers the best opportunity to overtake. This hairpin turn is right at the end of the long back straight and heavy breaking to turn 12 at the end offers the classic outbreaking turning opportunity.

Aerodynamics

Aerodynamics are not quite as critical as in Spain, but are still very important. Turkey is traditionally a medium downforce circuit especially in order to carry great speed through the famous turn 8. That’s the most critical area for aerodynamics grip and virtually the rest is a track that relies on mechanical grip. Specifically through to turn 5 and 12, 13, and 14.

Tires

Tires are much a part of mechanical grip and in Turkey tires take a beating starting with turn 8. Opposite Spain where the track was hard on the left front, in Turkey the right front get the most wear. The choice of compounds that Bridgestone are supplying are hard and medium just like in Spain. Previous years saw this race in the middle of the summer with a very hot track surface. Now that the date is in May, track surface is cooler and less demanding on the tires.

Suspension

Being so new, the curbs (kerbs) and pavement are very easy on the car making balance fairly routine (hah) with a delicate balance between stiff settings for the high speed sections of the track and soft settings for the low speed sections.

Brakes

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