When Raikkonen peeled into the pits for his second stop to switch over to the harder compound
Bridgestone Potenza tyres the Finn was fortunate not to lose any time as he stopped somewhat short of his marks, and when Massa came in a lap later as before the crowd waited with baited breath. Another excellent pit-stop saw the Brazilian once more rejoin ahead, and for Raikkonen the message was now clear – if he wanted to win the race, he would have to do his talking out on the track.
Then the drama struck. A laminated right front tyre sent Hamilton straight on at turn nine, with the wildly flailing rubber destroying the front wing endplates of his
McLaren. The young Briton made it back around to the pits and the offending tyre was replaced, but not before he had lost places to both team-mate Alonso and Heidfeld, and the question with 14 laps remaining was just how much damage limitation he could now achieve.
Kubica was once again the biggest loser of the second round of stops, slipping back behind Rosberg's
Williams and barely still inside the points. With status quo resumed at the front, though, it looked like being a
Ferrari benefit and second consecutive victory for Massa in the Turkish sun, while the damage to the front wing in particular of Hamilton's MP4-22 saw him struggling to keep pace as the charging Kovalainen closed in.
With eight laps to go and Massa holding a comfortable four-second advantage, Raikkonen appeared to have given up the chase and settled for second place. His team-mate's untroubled cruise to the chequered flag, meanwhile, saw him close the gap on Hamilton at the head of the drivers' championship standings to just 15 points, and with five races remaining, 50 points left up for grabs and just 16 blanketing the four challengers, it is very much all to play for.
![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)
