> Turkish Grand Prix 2007

Nikhil · 11:46 PM

Let all discussions regarding the Turkish Grand Prix continue in this thread.

As of now, I'll post the results of the Friday Practice sessions.

Practice 1: Kimi dominates in Turkey

Ferrari's talisman Kimi Raikkonen was utterly dominant from the moment he ventured out on to the dusty Istanbul Speed Park as free practice began for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Raikkonen, whose last-minute 1m27.988s lap only improved on his already inpenetrable first attempt set early in the session, was 0.4s faster than his team-mate Felipe Massa - the only man capable of getting within a second of him.

The McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton were third and fourth fastest, 1.2s back from the flying Finn.

Hamilton, who along with his team-mate, spent Thursday in hiding, also spent much of the session out of the spotlight as the team worked on the rear of his MP4/22.

Renault's rising star Heikki Kovalainen was fifth fastest ahead of Williams man Nico Rosberg.

The circuit was not only typically hot but throughly carpetted in dust which accounted for an unusually high number of spins during the session.

It seemed no-one was immune, with both Ferraris, Hamilton's McLaren, both Toyotas and both Red Bulls pirouetting their way to the replay roster.

David Coulthard's last minute spin was perhaps the most spectacular as the Scot encountered a flash fire while he got back underway.

Ralf Schumacher was the fastest Toyota driver in seventh, his team-mate Jarno Trulli 10th – but both had sat comfortably in the top five until the usual burst of activity late on.

That flurry ensured that Giancarlo Fisichella (eighth) and Nick Heidfeld (ninth) were also inside the top ten.

Robert Kubica, another spinner, was 11th ahead of the British trio of Anthony Davidson, Coulthard and Jenson Button.

Practice 2: Lewis responds to Kimi threat

It was a case of 'anything you can do, I can do better,' as McLaren's Lewis Hamilton reproduced the kind of form in second practice that Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen had shown in the morning.

The world championship leader dominated a disrupted 90-minutes that was halted less than a third of the way through when Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault dislodged a drain cover.

There were few improvements in times after the 30-minute delay, and when Anthony Davidson speared into the barriers at Turn 3 in the closing stages, the matter any chance of a quick lap went out of the window.

So, while it would be unwise to draw too many conclusions from the sessions as a whole thanks to the dusty track and the delays, it does appear that despite early indications Ferrari might dominate McLaren does indeed have the pace to compete.

Raikkonen, whose time this morning indicated he was playing around with a light fuel-load as the team experimented with strategy on a track that is open to both one and two-stop approaches, was second fastest in the afternoon.

His more representative 1m28.762s just a whisker faster than the impressive Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli in third and fourth.

Such was the pace of the Japanese motors that Felipe Massa, just over a tenth slower than his Ferrari team-mate, had to settle for fifth ahead of Fernando Alonso.

Nico Rosberg was seventh ahead of Renault's Heikki Kovalainen whho was one of several to run wide in the second session.

Alex Wurz made it two Williams cars in the top ten while Robert Kubica was tenth for BMW.

David Coulthard rebounded well to go 11th after the Red Bull team spent much of the session changing the Renault engine that had caused his fiery fuel leak in P1.

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Turkish Grand Prix, Free practice two times

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m28.469s

2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m28.762s
3. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m28.773s

4. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.874s

5. MASSA Ferrari 1m28.884s

6. ALONSO Mclaren 1m28.947s

7. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.995s

8. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m29.025s

9. WURZ Williams 1m29.093s
10. KUBICA BMW 1m29.368s

11. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m29.435s

12. FISICHELLA Renault 1m29.456s
13. HEIDFELD BMW 1m29.792s

14. BUTTON Honda 1m29.945s

15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m30.055s

16. SATO Super Aguri 1m30.104s
17. WEBBER Red Bull 1m30.314s
18. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m30.530s

19. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m30.702s

20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m30.801s

21. SUTIL Spyker 1m31.153s

22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m31.175s

Turkish Grand Prix, Free practice one times

1. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.988s
2. MASSA Ferrari 1m28.391s

3. ALONSO Mclaren 1m29.222s

4. HAMILTON McLaren 1m29.261s

5. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m29.346s

6. ROSBERG Williams 1m29.403s

7. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m29.414s
8. FISICHELLA Renault 1m29.541s
9. HEIDFELD BMW 1m29.641s

10. TRULLI Toyota 1m29.685s

11. KUBICA BMW 1m29.710s

12. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m30.384s

13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m30.398s

14. BUTTON Honda 1m30.483s

15. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m30.580s

16. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m30.612s

17. SATO Super Aguri 1m30.624s
18. WURZ Williams 1m30.876s
19. WEBBER Red Bull 1m30.917s
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m31.383s

21. SUTIL Spyker 1m31.445s

22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m32.270s

The Toyotas are flying !! Check out their times inthe second session.

and Ferrari seem to have the edge over McLaren on this track. But McLaren can very wel turn the tables on their rivals.

If you are trying to still decide what to do abt Fantasy F1, my pick would be the Ferrari F1 team and at least Kimi Raikkonen or Lewis Hamilton. they are very safe bets.

And you could think of Ralf Schumacher or Jarno Trulli as your second race drive.

Nikhil

Practice 3: Lewis holds off Ferrari pair

Lewis Hamilton survived an early scare to post the fastest time in final practice for the Turkish Grand Prix on Saturday morning.

The championship leader outpaced the Ferrari pair of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen to set a best time of 1m27.325, despite missing the first 20 minutes of the session after his MP4-22 stopped just yards from the pit lane exit at the start of his installation lap.

Hamilton was pushed back to the McLaren garage and after the team discovered that a connector had become dislodged, the Briton was sent back out on to the track.

And he did enough on his penultimate flying lap to edge out Massa by just 0.041s and go a further tenth clear of the second Ferrari.

He maintained his position despite all four of the top drivers going for a final run on the softer compound tyres, with none of them unable to lower the bar.

The Ferrari pair both set purple first sectors on their respective final runs but found their pace drop off in the final two sectors, while Hamilton himself spun harmlessly at turn seven.

World champion Fernando Alonso was also unable to bump himself further up the order in the closing stages and ended up a long way back from his team-mate in fourth.

Nico Rosberg was a fine fifth fastest for Williams, with the BMW pair of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica having to settle for sixth and seventh.

Both Renault drivers were languishing outside the top half of the timesheet for the majority of the hour, but late improvements from both ensured they ended up either side of Red Bull’s Mark Webber in eighth (Fisichella) and 10th (Kovalainen).

After its fine showing on Friday, Toyota slipped back into the midfield order, although just 0.4s of a second covered Rosberg in fifth to Ralf Schumacher in 13th.

Jenson Button was snapping at the heels of the Toyota pair with his best time of 1m28.548s coming after Honda had fixed a hydraulic leak on his RA107 car.

Anthony Davidson was close to the works Honda’s in 17th, while his Super Aguri team-mate Takuma Sato made the one major mistake of the hour when he dropped his SA07 into the turn three gravel with just over 10 minutes remaining.

************************************************** ***************************

Turkish Grand Prix, Free practice three times

1. HAMILTON McLaren 1m27.325s

2. MASSA Ferrari 1m27.366s

3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1m27.506s

4. ALONSO McLaren 1m27.743s

5. ROSBERG Williams 1m28.056s

6. HEIDFELD BMW 1m28.184s

7. KUBICA BMW 1m28.224s

8. FISICHELLA Renault 1m28.261s

9. WEBBER Red Bull 1m28.337s

10. KOVALAINEN Renault 1m28.364s

11. WURZ Williams 1m28.413s

12. COULTHARD Red Bull 1m28.448s

13. SCHUMACHER Toyota 1m28.481s

14. TRULLI Toyota 1m28.520s

15. BUTTON Honda 1m28.548s

16. BARRICHELLO Honda 1m28.715s

17. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1m28.755s

18. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1m28.937s

19. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1m29.408s

20. SATO Super Aguri 1m29.436s

21. SUTIL Spyker 1m30.044s

22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1m30.712s

Sandeep

Brazilian Felipe Massa upstaged all his major rivals on Saturday when he grabbed pole in his Ferrari for Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old Latin American from Sao Paulo managed to hold off a fierce challenge from championship-leading British rookie Lewis Hamilton in the final minutes to grab the prime grid position.

It was Massa's second successive pole at the Istanbul Park circuit, situated 30km out of the capital city on the Asian side of the Bosphorous, and demonstrated his liking for the wide-open attack and the hot conditions.

He took pole and won last year's race and now has a perfect opportunity to relaunch his and Ferrari's challenge for the Formula One world championships this year with six races remaining.

Hamilton, in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, was second fastest ahead of Massa's Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and defending double world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso who was fourth for McLaren.

Poland's Robert Kubica was fifth in a BMW Sauber ahead of his team-mate German Nick Heidfeld.

Sandeep

from itv website:

Ferrari's Felipe Massa delivered a brilliant performance to snatch pole position from Lewis Hamilton's grasp in a thrilling climax to qualifying in Turkey.

The Brazilian hadn't topped a session all weekend, but when it mattered most he dug deep and, helped by a lightning first sector, pipped Hamilton by 0.044s for his second consecutive Istanbul Park pole.

The championship-leading rookie won't be too unhappy to start second, two places ahead of McLaren team-mate and chief title rival Fernando Alonso.

Kimi Raikkonen split the McLarens but blew his chances of pole with a mistake at turn 13 on his final lap, which meant he didn't improve on his first run time.

Alonso's decision to use hard-compound tyres for his final run backfired and he too was unable to better his initial time.

Robert Kubica won BMW Sauber's private battle for fifth on the grid, outpacing team-mate Nick Heidfeld by a clear 0.3s margin, which perhaps suggests different fuel strategies for Sunday's race.

Heikki Kovalainen was again the faster of the Renault drivers in seventh, just shading Nico Rosberg's Williams.

Jarno Trulli (Toyota) and the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella will share the fifth row.

Qualifying 2

Fernando Alonso staked his claim for pole position by going fastest in the Q2 knock-out session at Istanbul Park.

The world champion has played a relatively low-key role so far this weekend but showed that he is not to be underestimated with an impressive performance in low-fuel conditions.

Kimi Raikkonen had set the early pace for Ferrari with a 1m26.902s before Alonso, the last of the four big hitters to set a time, shaded him with a 1m26.841s.

With Lewis Hamilton third quickest on a 1m26.936s and Felipe Massa 0.1s further adrift in fourth, pole position still looks too close to call.

The BMWs were again best of the rest, the two drivers bringing a smile to Mario Theissen's face by clocking exactly the same lap time.

Nico Rosberg was seventh quickest for Williams ahead of Renault's Heikki Kovalainen, Toyota's Jarno Trulli and the second Renault of Giancarlo Fisichella.

Once again the over-achiever of the session was Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson, who produced a superb lap to go 11th fastest, only narrowly missing the cut for the top-10 shootout.

Drivers knocked out: Anthony Davidson, Mark Webber, David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Alex Wurz

Qualifying 1

Kimi Raikkonen signalled his intent in the first knock-out qualifying session at Istanbul Park, topping the times for Ferrari with a 1m27.294s lap.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso was only a few hundredths slower, though, posting a 1m27.328s to split the Ferraris and confirm that F1's two top teams are closely matched here.

With Felipe Massa third, Lewis Hamilton was the slowest of the leading contenders. The world championship-leading rookie was the first to set a time, but a couple of slightly lurid moments took the edge off his time.

The BMW duo were fifth and sixth fastest ahead of Renault's Heikki Kovalainen and the Williams of Nico Rosberg.

Anthony Davidson delivered a fine giant-killing performance to go ninth quickest in the Super Aguri, ahead of much bigger and better-funded teams.

The surprise casualty at the first knock-out hurdle was Ralf Schumacher, who earlier in the weekend had looked likely to make it to Q3.

The Toyota driver told ITV Sport's Louise Goodman that his car had simply been a handful, causing him to lock up several times and denying him a clean lap.

Drivers knocked out: Vitantonio Liuzzi, Ralf Schumacher, Takuma Sato, Sebastian Vettel, Adrian Sutil, Sakon Yamamoto

Sandeep

Standings for Qualifications:

1. Felipe Massa
2. Lewis Hamilton
3. Kimi Raikkonen
4. Fernando Alonso

Safin

hmmm ok till now... i think i made a mistake though in this race in the fantasy league

Alpha-Q

Hmm.. I didn't understand why Alonso was the last one to leave the pits for Q3.. and that decision to run on hard compounds definitely costed him.. I was so sure he was gonna take pole after the time he posted in Q2..

Alpha-Q

My bad.. just checked.. he did the same number of laps as Hamilton.. which is 17.. so it didn't make a difference he left last from the pit lane.. Ferrari's got an extra lap in at 18..

Nikhil

Ferrari on pole !! Yaay !! Go Massa !!