The two scarlet machines, meanwhile, were separated by barely a second and continuing to edge clear of Hamilton at the front, with Raikkonen sitting in formation behind his Brazilian team-mate. Further down the order,
Heikki Kovalainen,
Nico Rosberg and the twin
Red Bull Racing cars of Coulthard – betraying none of its earlier gearbox woes – and
Mark Webber completed the early top ten.
On lap ten, however, it was Webber and not Coulthard who would encouter problems, running off-piste as a result of a hydraulic problem and touring into the pit-lane at the end of the lap and into inevitable retirement – the fifth of 2007 for the luckless Australian.
Robert Kubica was the first driver to blink when it came round to the proper pit-stops, coming in at the end of lap 13 in a move that perhaps betrayed his true qualifying pace, while team-mate Heidfeld continued to frustrate Alonso's ambitions, the Spaniard at times lapping more than a second slower than the
Ferrari duo trapped in the
BMW's dirty air.
A small mistake from Raikkonen seemed to give Massa extra impetus as he set a new fastest lap on lap 14, but the Finn immediately responded with an effort some four tenths of a second quicker still next time around.
To Alonso's intense relief, Heidfeld followed team-mate Kubica into the pits four laps later, at the end of lap 18, leapfrogging the Pole in the process. Raikkonen and Alonso came in next time around, and all eyes were on just where the reigning double world champion would rejoin the fray in relation to the two duelling BMWs. Despite a slower stop, he did indeed pip both the Bavarian machines out of the pit-lane, while Massa's stop a lap later saw the Brazilian maintain his narrow advantage over Raikkonen.
![2007 Turkish Grand Prix podium finishers: [L-R] Kimi Raikkonen (2nd), Felipe Massa (1st) and Fernando Alonso (3rd)](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/367642.jpg)
