A special place for Felipe Massa - Turkish GP - Ferrari - Race

With Felipe Massa crossing the line just over two seconds clear of Ferrari-team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, the team secured their sixth victory of the season and for Massa back to back wins at Istanbul Park. The Brazilian dominated the race from the pole position and the fast-starting Raikkonen was unable to find a way ahead of his team-mate.

The results closes Ferrari to within 11 points of rivals McLaren Mercedes in the constructors' championship, while Massa moves third in the drivers' championship standings one point ahead of Raikkonen and 15 behind title leader Lewis Hamilton.

Felipe Massa“This is becoming a special place for me! It is a really great win! I maintained my concentration for the whole race, trying to control the situation. Only towards the end of the second stint did I make a small mistake at Turn 7 which cost me the gap I had over Kimi, who closed right up to me. I made a very good start and the car behaved perfectly even though it has to be said it was a difficult race. Today’s result is a great encouragement when looking to the final part of the season. It is fantastic to head to Monza after a weekend like this. We must continue to work in this same way and give it our best shot."

Kimi Raikkonen
“Of course I would like to have won but probably the race was decided in yesterday afternoon’s qualifying session. When your main rival is your team-mate, there are less unknown factors and even less room to come up with something.
However, the important thing is to have put two Ferraris in front of everyone else and, in any case, we have made up ground on the championship leader. I got a good start then I had a bit of understeer which went away after a few laps. The second set of tyres did not work as well as the first. The quick lap at the end? I was a bit bored with spending the whole race behind another car and so I tried to see how quick I could have been. In Monza I will have to try and do a good qualifying to be in the best possible situation for the race.”

Massa hails `amazing` Turkish victory

Felipe Massa hailed his "amazing" Turkish GP victory, which saw the Ferrari driver's title campaign get back on track. The Brazilian, who clinched the victory at the Istanbul Park last season, won this year's race from pole to flag while his family watched on from the Ferrari garage. It was an emotional win for Massa, who reduced the gap from himself to Championship leader Lewis Hamilton to just 15 points after the McLaren driver suffered a tyre blow-out.

"It is amazing. Really fantastic," said Massa.
"I love the track, love the place. Here was where my career made a switch, where I started winning races and fighting with the front-runners.
"It is a special place for me. Having the second win is special, it is difficult to find the right words.
"It was an emotional podium, the team likes to take this feeling from the people. I am proud to win in front of him (his father) and my mother."

However, it wasn't all smooth sailing for the Ferrari driver, who came under attack from his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and was seen throwing aside a piece of his broken helmet. "I had a crack on the cooling system on the helmet and I had a big turbulence and my head was going up and down and I lost concentration and I took it away. I cracked it completely and took it off and it was better," he said.
Meanwhile team-mate Raikkonen was left to lament an error in Saturday's qualifying that saw him claim third place on the grid. Although he immediately moved up to second place at the start, the Finn found himself unable to pass Massa throughout the 58-lap race.

"I had a very good car but at this stage in F1 is difficult to get past," he said.
"The race was really decided yesterday. I tried to do something at the pitstops but when two teammates are fighting usually whoever is first is going to stay there.


"The car was good but there was nothing I could do."


Ferrari's 1-2 means the team is now just 11 points behind McLaren in the race for the Constructors' Championship title.

Source: Planet-F1