Felipe Massa Makes Turkish Grand Prix His Maiden Win

It was a good afternoon of racing for another first time winner, Felipe Massa.

"It's like a dream come true," he said. "I've worked so hard during my career for this moment. It's amazing. Looking back to everything I'd done in my life to get here, there are lots of emotions.

"I did a very good start and had a very good first lap. The car was well balanced during whole race.

"Every single part of the race the car was responding in a fantastic way and I could just keep the gap and not drive too aggressive."

The surprise however is not that Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix, but how Michael Schumacher made a mistake and ended up third.

The problems started for Schumi Saturday in qualifying. He made a mistake on his first flying lap at the first corner, and had to put a banker lap in on his second and last run, forcing him to start behind the Brazilian.

This was then impacted early on in the race when a safety car was brought out aftere Tonio Liuzzi spun at Corner 1. The teams all decided to pit, with the two Ferraris lining up behind each other. This allowed Alonso to get out ahead of the seven-time world champion.

The start of the race was an untidy affair as well, with Giancarlo Fisichella spinning so to avoid Alonso at the first corner, and in the process taking out some of the field. Heidfeld and Fisi needed new nose cones, and Kimi Raikkonen was forced to retire after the incident due to damage caused to the car after a rear tyre deflated.

Alonso managed to gain enough space behind him to Schumacher. This allowed him to come out ahead of the Ferrari after the pit stops, even though the Ferrari was carrying more fuel and ran longer. But it was close, and Michael was right on the tail of the Spaniard.

Schumacher did all he could to overtake the Renault that seemed to be struggling in the slow corners with blistered rear tyres. However, Michael's aero package through the mighty Turn 8 wasn't good all weekend, and today was no different; All the time he made up in the first part of the lap was lost in that one section of corners, and Michael could then not get close enough to Alonso to put a move on him.

Continued on the next page Page 1 — Page 2

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Article Author: Ashleigh Charlesworth

Ashleigh currently writes for Naked Cleaner and F1 Blog. His interest lie in Technology (of all forms) and engineering. Day to day he does network security for living (yes I AM that nerdy).

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