Felipe Massa took a comfortable victory in the Turkish Grand Prix despite Lewis Hamilton's attempt to take the fight to Ferrari with an inventive strategy.

The McLaren driver passed Massa for the lead in the middle of the race but his three-stop strategy succeeded only Superb Massa secures Turkish pole ...
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Massa, on a conventional two-stop plan like his team-mate, had pace in hand to keep him ahead of Hamilton.

But the Englishman did cut Raikkonen's championship lead to seven points.

And Hamilton, who is tied on points with Massa but behind him in the standings on win count-back, will be encouraged by his McLaren's new-found competitiveness.

After two races of being outclassed by Ferrari, McLaren were much closer on pace to Ferrari in Turkey.

Massa, who won for the third time in a row at Istanbul Park, was always out of reach, but even being able to compete with one of the Ferraris was a step forward for McLaren.

Hamilton was in aggressive mood from the start of the race, moving up a place from his third spot on the grid on the run to the first corner and tracking Massa until the McLaren's first stop on lap 16.

That was three laps earlier than Massa's first stop, but what betrayed McLaren's strategy was that they team put only a small amount of fuel in the car at that time.

The thinking was to enable the car to run lighter - and therefore faster - and try to pass Massa.

The team would have known that the Brazilian was out of reach, but Raikkonen, having a rare off weekend, looked vulnerable if Hamilton could gain enough time.

The 23-year-old set about his task with vigour.

Hamilton was quickly on to Massa's tail when the Ferrari rejoined the race, on lap 24 he pulled off a superb overtaking move at the end of the back straight.

Massa left the McLaren very little room on the inside as they braked for the tight left-hander, but Hamilton was not to be intimidated and he forced his way through.

Hamilton then set a series of fastest laps as he sought to build the advantage he needed to take on Raikkonen.

But after making his second stop on lap 31, Hamilton was 3.2 seconds behind the world champion.

He closed that to a second by lap 43, when Raikkonen made his final stop, and piled on the pressure for two more laps before making his own final stop.

He emerged from that ahead of Raikkonen, and fitted with the softer tyres that he had not been able to get to work on the McLaren all weekend.

But although the Ferrari closed in during the final stint, Hamilton was able to hold on to his position to the end of the race.

The BMW Saubers put in their least competitive showing of the season and could manage only fourth and fifth places, with Robert Kubica ahead of Nick Heidfeld.

Behind them, Fernando Alonso was sixth for Renault, winning a battle with Red Bull's Mark Webber, who continued his impressively consistent season with his third seventh place in four races.

Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, who had started from the front row for the first time in his career, saw his chances dashed when he suffered a puncture on the first lap.

He pitted for a replacement and fought his way back impressively from last to eighth place, passing Williams's Nico Rosberg with eight laps to go, before a late stop for a final splash of fuel left him down in 12th.

(BBC)

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