With Hamilton completing the front-running stops at the end of lap 20, that promoted
Heikki Kovalainen into the race lead for only the second time in his fledgling grand prix career, with Massa, Raikkonen and Hamilton all breathing down the Finn's neck. Although the
Renault would peel off into the pit-lane just a lap later, it was nevertheless an impressive showing and one that made his qualifying run to seventh place the previous day seem all-the-more outstanding. Indeed, as he rejoined he did so in-between the BMWs, having spent the early laps behind both of them.
Fisichella became the last of the top ten to make his first pit-stop, while up at the front it was now a more heavily-fuelled Hamilton applying the pressure on the back of Raikkonen rather than Raikkonen on Massa, with the leading trio blanketed by just four seconds and Alonso a further 15 seconds in arrears.
Running wide through the infamous turn eight did little to aid the Spaniard's cause, while his
McLaren team hung out his pit-board with the words ‘Hamilton – 14.6' in an effort to spur him on. The gap at the front, meanwhile, was ebbing and flowing, with Hamilton beginning to struggle to hang on to the Ferraris' ferocious pace and Raikkonen in turn inexorably closing the gap on Massa ahead.
With Kovalainen caught in a
BMW sandwich and Rosberg not far adrift in eighth place, the tussle over fifth looked like going any one of four ways. Kubica was once again the first of them to pit, coming into his box at the end of lap 37. The Ferraris by this time were now running nose-to-tail, with Raikkonen as much as seven tenths a lap faster and Massa beginning to look just a little bit ragged in an almost mirror-image repeat of Magny-Cours earlier in the season.
![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)
