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Mass finish
Only one car made it to the Turkish Grand Prix
The past Turkish Grand Prix has significantly intensified the fight in the championship. The victory of Felipe Massa from Ferrari and the second place of his teammate Kimi Raikkonen allowed the Italian stable to reduce the gap in the team standings from McLaren to nine points. In the individual championship, Fernando Alonso, who took third place in Istanbul, continues to pursue Lewis Hamilton. Now the McLaren pilots are separated by only five points.The three weeks allocated for rest in the calendar of the Formula 1 World Auto Racing Championship flew by like a short summer shower. After the scandalous race in Hungary, the main topic during this holiday was the situation at McLaren. The conflict that flared up in the English team required urgent intervention from the top officials of the stable in order to prevent it from developing into an even bigger problem. And it looks like Ron Dennis managed to find the right controls and cope with the riot on the ship. In any case, in Turkey, the expected continuation of the war between the two McLaren pilots did not happen. The drivers, who met in Istanbul for the first time after the Hungarian Grand Prix, at least in public, did not express any hostile feelings towards each other.
An attempt to reconcile Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso was made by one of the co-owners of McLaren, Mansur Oyeh. Last week he took the team on board his yacht. Hamilton, having accepted the invitation, showed that he was ready for a dialogue with his partner, but Alonso ignored the event. And Lewis had to while away the time in the company of the daughter of the yacht owner, which, however, he did not particularly regret. And the less time remained before the next Grand Prix, the more encouraging the speeches of the McLaren management became. But by constantly repeating that there was no crisis in the team, they only fueled the press’s interest in the situation in the team. Alonso's departure from McLaren was considered a done deal. All that remained was to find out when and where the two-time world champion would go. Someone predicted that Alonso would leave Woking before the end of the season, someone saw Fernando in the company of the BMW-Sauber bosses. In addition, Alonso himself, as soon as he arrived in the Turkish capital, said that he had not yet decided on a team for the next season, which confirmed the opinion that there were significant differences between the driver and the team.
On Thursday, when the teams traditionally organize various PR campaigns for sponsors, McLaren locked himself in the hotel for a big heart-to-heart talk. And already in the evening it gave its results. Alonso said that leaving the English team would be very stupid on his part. There was no trace of any friction between him and Hamilton, and all this was an invention of journalists. But why then was this “summit” meeting necessary? And, as usual, Fernando could not resist making another attack on Ron Dennis: “Racers should receive an equal chance, equal support from the team, this is obvious. But while the team got more from me than I got from them, I remember their results in 2006, I remember the results of the first winter tests, since then we have added five to six tenths per lap, and I really did a lot for this.” In general, despite all the assurances from McLaren officials, the situation in the team is really difficult, and this may affect the further struggle in the championship if it still cannot be dealt with.
However, some people really like what’s happening at McLaren. Of course, Ferrari watches the quarrel among competitors with particular interest. But who would have thought that the most important person in Formula 1 is not only not outraged by the constant scandals that the “silver arrows” are getting into this season, but, on the contrary, is even happy about it. “In Formula 1 there have been no clashes between partners for a long time, but this year we saw the fight between two young, equally fast and incredibly talented pilots. In recent years, we have lost the habit of emotions, of the real intensity of passions, the drivers look like robots, precisely executing the orders of the teams, and this battle is a breath of fresh air for the championship,” Bernie Ecclestone commented on his opinion on this matter. In short, even if nothing like this had happened, they would have come up with something anyway.
Be that as it may, McLaren pilots arrived in Turkey as favorites. And although the track in Istanbul Park should be more suitable for Ferrari cars in terms of its characteristics, the experts still gave preference to the “silver arrows”. In Turkey, Fernando Alonso took the start of his 100th Grand Prix, so they expected an outstanding race from the hero of the day. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. Already in qualifying, he was unable to oppose anything to the Ferrari drivers and his partner, managing to show only the fourth result. Felipe Massa won pole position. A year ago, the Brazilian already started here in first place, and then he managed to win the race. Kimi Raikkonen also won the Turkish Grand Prix in 2005, starting from first position. Now the Finn started third, behind Hamilton. But this did not stop him from getting ahead of the Englishman already in the first turn. Alonso also had a bad start - a slight hitch dropped the reigning champion to sixth place. The hero of the day sat behind Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld from BMW-Sauber for a long time, losing a lot of time. Only after the first pit stop did the Spaniard manage to return to fourth place, but by this time he was already significantly behind the leaders. Hamilton also failed to maintain the pace of the leaders.
By the middle of the distance, Ferrari fans no longer had to worry about the outcome of the race: the winner was supposed to be someone from the Italian stable. However, in racing there is always a risk that something will go wrong. For example, even with such a simple and reliable thing as a helmet. When, at full speed, Massa’s helmet was suddenly torn off by a stream of air, it could have ended quite disastrously. But the Brazilian overcame this particular problem and finished the race first.
Hamilton had to worry much more. A tire on his car exploded, almost causing a serious accident. The Englishman kept McLaren on the track, but while he was slowly returning to the pits, Alonso and Heidfeld were able to overtake him. As a result, Lewis returned only fifth and did not have time to win back at least one place before the finish. Despite the heat in Istanbul, there were practically no problems with the equipment. Amazingly, 21 riders made it to the finish line. And apart from replacing the engines on both Honda cars after qualifying, only Mark Webber's Red Bull car suffered from the Turkish climate. The Australian, who was also holding his 100th anniversary Grand Prix, turned out to be the only one in this race.
Results. Formula 1 World Auto Racing Championship. 12th stage. Turkish Grand Prix. 1. Mass (Ferrari) - 1 hour 26 minutes. 42.2 sec. 2. Raikkonen (Ferrari) - lag 2.3 seconds. 3. Alonso (McLaren) - 26.2. 4. Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) - 39.7. 5. Hamilton (McLaren) - 45.1. 6. Kovalainen (Renault) - 46.2. 7. Rosberg (Williams) - 55.8. 8. Kubica (BMW-Sauber) - 56.7. Pilots' Championship. Hamilton - 84 points, Alonso - 79, Massa - 69, Raikkonen - 68. Constructors' Championship. McLaren - 148 points, Ferrari - 137, BMW-Sauber - 77, Renault - 36.