Felipe Massa converted pole into a third consecutive Turkish win, while Super Aguri's withdrawal left the grid with 20 drivers and Rubens Barrichello celebrated a record 257th start.
Felipe Massa won the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix for Ferrari from pole at the Istanbul Racing Circuit on 11 May 2008. Lewis Hamilton was second for McLaren, 3.779 seconds back, with Kimi Raikkonen third. Super Aguri had withdrawn the week before, leaving 20 drivers.
Felipe Massa won the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Racing Circuit in Tuzla on 11 May 2008, starting from pole for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton finished second for McLaren, 3.779 seconds behind, and Kimi Raikkonen was third. The 58-lap race was the fifth round of the season.
Who won the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix?
Felipe Massa won for Ferrari from pole, finishing 3.779 seconds clear of Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen came third, half a second further back. The result was Massa's third straight victory at the circuit, following his wins from pole in 2006 and 2007.
Hamilton had chosen to run one more stop than either Ferrari driver, carrying a lighter fuel load that let him go faster in the middle of the race. He used that advantage to pass Massa on lap 24 at turn twelve, then built a lead of more than six seconds before his first stop.
Massa said afterwards that the race had been hard but the team had given him a great car. When Hamilton came past at an incredible pace, he preferred not to take big risks, because the pit wall had told him Hamilton was clearly on a lighter load.
Pole, victory and a 257th start for Barrichello, all in the week Super Aguri left the grid.
Why was the field smaller than usual?
Super Aguri withdrew from Formula One in the week before the race after its financial problems could not be solved, leaving ten teams and 20 drivers. The FIA had blocked the team's trucks from the paddock after Honda's Formula One chief executive, Nick Fry, said the team would not race at Istanbul Park.
The team's trouble began when a rescue deal involving Dubai International Capital, pitched through the Magma Group name, never materialised. Aguri Suzuki then admitted that his primary sponsor, SS United Group, could not fix the shortfall, and the withdrawal took effect from 6 May.
Super Aguri had used Honda engines and Honda-derived chassis. Its two drivers were no longer on the grid, and the qualifying rules were adjusted to suit a smaller field.
Toro Rosso's problems were of a different kind. Its new STR3 could not be introduced because spare parts were short, after Sebastien Bourdais crashed during testing before the previous race and damaged the chassis heavily. The team therefore raced an updated 2007 car, the STR2, for its first four races of the season, and Turkey was the last race that car ran in.
Where did the championship stand before Istanbul?
Kimi Raikkonen led the Drivers' Championship on 29 points, nine ahead of Lewis Hamilton, with Felipe Massa fourth and 11 points behind the Finn. Ferrari led the Constructors' Championship on 47 points, 12 ahead of BMW Sauber.
BMW Sauber's Kubica and Heidfeld sat third and fifth, with 19 and 16 points. McLaren sat one point further back than BMW Sauber, so the battle for the team title was tight behind Ferrari.
Kovalainen had crashed heavily at the previous round, but he escaped with only minor concussion. The FIA's fitness test cleared him in the days before Turkey, and he said he felt ready after plenty of fitness work.
Which record did Barrichello break in Turkey?
Barrichello marked 257 Grand Prix starts, passing the record of Riccardo Patrese, who had 256. Some argued the 2002 Spanish Grand Prix should not count, because Barrichello entered that race but did not take part on Sunday.
Barrichello and Honda chose Turkey for the celebration. Honda's team dressed him in a special anniversary livery and helmet, each showing the number 257. Patrese said he would feel some sadness at losing the record.
How did practice unfold at Istanbul?
There were three practice sessions, two on Friday of 90 minutes each and one of an hour on Saturday morning. The first session was disrupted by damp patches left by late track cleaning, and Felipe Massa set the fastest time before the afternoon session.
The damp patches came from late track cleaning rather than rain, and low track temperatures slowed the drying. Raikkonen managed three laps before a gearbox problem forced his retirement, and Massa led ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton. Giancarlo Fisichella was given a three-place grid penalty for leaving the pit lane while the light was red.
The second session was dry, though the track still held some damp areas from earlier drizzle. After 30 minutes Mark Webber crashed at turn six and damaged his car badly, finishing the session 19th. Raikkonen was fastest, with Hamilton next, Massa third, David Coulthard fourth and Kovalainen just behind.
The final session was held on a drier track with some damp patches still present. Webber set the fastest time, with Fernando Alonso second and Coulthard third. Massa was fifth, Hamilton seventh, Raikkonen 11th and Kovalainen 12th.
How did qualifying shape the grid?
Felipe Massa took pole with 1:27.617, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Lewis Hamilton, with Raikkonen fourth. Qualifying was largely a two-way fight between Ferrari and McLaren, and BMW Sauber did not show the pace it had in earlier qualifying sessions.
Hamilton skipped a run on the softer option compound because he felt the tyres lacked grip late in the lap. He finished his final lap on scrubbed harder tyres and still earned third. Afterwards he said his tyre choice had been wrong, but he changed his mind the next day after studying the telemetry.
The qualifying format was adjusted after the withdrawal. The first session lasted 20 minutes and removed the five slowest cars, leaving 15 drivers. The second session also removed five cars, leaving ten for the final session, which set the first ten places and decided pole.
Kubica was fifth, ahead of Mark Webber, Alonso, Trulli, Heidfeld and Coulthard in the top ten. Nico Rosberg took 11th for Williams, ahead of Barrichello and Jenson Button. Sebastian Vettel was 14th and Timo Glock 15th.
Nakajima took 16th, ahead of Nelson Piquet and Sebastien Bourdais. Bourdais said traffic from the two Force India cars had ruined his afternoon, first in turn three and again behind Fisichella in turn eight. Giancarlo Fisichella was 19th, but his three-place penalty dropped him behind Adrian Sutil to last on the grid.
How did the race unfold?
Hamilton's lighter fuel load and extra stop let him lead from lap 24, but his third and final stop put him behind Massa, who kept the win. Raikkonen lost time with a poor start and contact with Kovalainen, and he finished third.
Hamilton immediately passed Kovalainen at the start to take second behind Massa. Raikkonen made a slow getaway, and Kovalainen forced him into a tight first corner, where the two cars touched. That contact punctured the McLaren's left rear tyre, forcing a stop on the second lap that dropped him to 18th.
Raikkonen damaged his front wing but raced the whole distance without changing the nose section. Kubica moved into third, and Alonso passed Raikkonen as well. Lower down, Vettel and Sutil came together and both needed pit stops, while Fisichella and Nakajima clashed at the first corner.
Fisichella retired on the spot, and Nakajima, after losing both his front and rear wings, managed to return to his pit box before retiring. The safety car came out after that and stayed out for one lap, then came in at the end of the second lap, which allowed the race to restart with Massa in front.
Raikkonen overtook Alonso for fourth as the race resumed. Between laps four and eleven Massa and Hamilton swapped fastest laps, and Hamilton held the gap at one and a half seconds. Sutil lost a place to Kovalainen on lap 12, and Vettel followed on lap 17.
Hamilton closed to within seven-tenths of Massa by lap 15. Alonso was the first of the leaders to stop, on lap 15, dropping to tenth, and Hamilton pitted a lap later to fall to sixth while Massa stayed out for three more laps.
Raikkonen briefly led after Massa and Kubica pitted, and on lap 20 he posted the quickest lap of the afternoon, 1:21.506. He pitted at the end of lap 21, and the leader order changed again as the stops rolled through.
Hamilton then ran lighter on fuel and was able to close on Massa. He overtook him at turn twelve on lap 24, and Massa dropped to second with Raikkonen third. Hamilton soon pulled away, going over a second a lap quicker, and he stretched his lead to more than six seconds.
Sebastien Bourdais spun at turn twelve after a rear suspension failure and retired. Kovalainen passed Glock on lap 34, only to be re-passed at once, though he got back past on the main straight within that lap. Two laps on, he was ahead of Button.
Hamilton made his first stop on lap 32 and rejoined in third, 2.6 seconds behind Raikkonen. Eight laps later the Ferrari team brought Massa in for his last visit to the pits, which briefly put Raikkonen back in the lead until he pitted on lap 43 for his final visit.
On lap 43 Hamilton led Massa by 14.4 seconds, and Raikkonen was seven seconds further back. Two laps later Hamilton made his third and final stop. He rejoined behind Massa but ahead of Raikkonen, and the top three stayed in that order to the flag.
Kubica and Heidfeld ran fourth and fifth for BMW Sauber, with Alonso, Webber and Rosberg behind them. Kovalainen passed Coulthard and then Rosberg on lap 48, but Rosberg immediately passed him back. Kovalainen pitted on lap 50 and rejoined 13th before recovering to 12th.
Massa won, 3.779 seconds ahead of Hamilton, with Raikkonen a further half-second back in third. Kubica and Heidfeld finished fourth and fifth, and Alonso, Webber and Rosberg rounded out the leading eight. Coulthard was ninth, Trulli tenth and Button eleventh.
The final classified runners included Vettel, Sutil, Piquet, Barrichello and Glock. The win was Massa's third in Turkey in as many years.
What did the result change in the title race?
Raikkonen's lead was cut by two points to seven. Massa and Hamilton were tied on 28 points, with Massa ahead on the count of race wins because he had two to Hamilton's one. Ferrari extended its Constructors' lead to 66 points.
BMW Sauber stayed second on 44 points, with McLaren third on 42. Kubica was fourth in the drivers' table on 24 points, and Heidfeld fifth on 20. Williams held fourth in the teams' standings on 13 points, while Red Bull were fifth on ten.
Who were the top finishers?
| Finish | Driver | Team | Grid | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1 | Pole and win; 3.779 seconds ahead |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 3 | Extra stop; lead from lap 24 |
| 3 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 4 | Half a second behind Hamilton |
| 4 | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 5 | Fourth place |
| 5 | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 9 | Kubica's teammate |
| 6 | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 7 | Pitted on lap 15 |
| 7 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 6 | Crashed in practice |
| 8 | Nico Rosberg | Williams | 11 | Eighth place |
What did the drivers say afterwards?
Massa was relieved after a tough race, and he credited the team for a strong car. Ron Dennis, McLaren's team principal, praised Hamilton's drive, saying he had made the most of a three-stop strategy that McLaren had been forced into by tyre concerns.
Hamilton felt his team had narrowed the distance to Ferrari, and he was excited about the next race in Monaco. Raikkonen said it had been a difficult weekend, but six points were better than nothing. He blamed the contact with Kovalainen, which damaged the end plate of his front wing.
Fisichella blamed Bourdais for the first-corner collision, saying the Frenchman had changed direction twice under braking. Nakajima said he had simply followed the car in front and was hit from behind. Bourdais said something had broken at the back of his car when he braked for turn twelve.
