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Sunday, 11th May 2008

Ferrari ace may have retained his unbeatable streak around Istanbul Park, but runner-up Hamilton's stirring performance proved McLaren-Mercedes are firmly on the comeback trail now.

As the leaders entered the final tour, Hamilton held a seven tenth of a second advantage over Raikkonen, with Kovalainen continuing to lap on the same pace to go to show what might have been. Massa ultimately crossed the line 3.7 seconds to the good, with Hamilton holding off Raikkonen to the end, Kubica and Heidfeld taking distant fourth and fifth positions on a somewhat low-key day for BMW and Alonso, Webber and Rosberg rounding out the points-scorers.

The remaining finishers were Coulthard, Trulli, Button, the luckless Kovalainen, Glock, record man Rubens Barrichello – who had begun the race on the softer tyres, contrary to the advice of Honda team principal Ross Brawn – Piquet, Sutil and Vettel on another miserable day for STR.

Up front, though, with Massa's third successive Istanbul triumph, Hamilton defeating the other Ferrari for second place and two of McLaren's strongest circuits on the F1 calendar coming up, the battle for the world championship had suddenly been re-ignited. Roll on Monte Carlo!

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