Felipe Massa wins 2008 Turkish Grand Prix

May 11, 2008

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa for the third consecutive year won from pole the FIA Formula One 2008 Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Racing Circuit, Istanbul, Turkey. Massa was also 2007 and 2006 year winner.

McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton came second after overtook his teammate Heikki Kovalainen on start. Kovalainen later suffered a rear tire puncture from Kimi Räikkönen and dropped to the back while on a pit-stop.

Massa's Ferrari teammate, driver Kimi Räikkönen, ran third. This leaves Räikkönen lead in the championship with 35 points, ahead of Massa, Hamilton and Kubica. Ferrari heads over both BMW Sauber and McLaren.

In other related news this week, Super Aguri-Honda withdrew from the Formula-1 after participatng in four races this season. The team principal Aguri Suzuki claimed in the press release it all started when SS United Group defaulted it's payment previous years and the absence of support from Honda. The team was put into external administration. Thus the race featured only 10 teams and 20 cars for the first time since the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix.

Also in the news, Honda’s Rubens Barrichello, who finished 14th in this race, is now the most experienced Formula One driver of all time surpassing the record of 256 Grands Prix held by Riccardo Patrese since 1993. For this occasion, his car and the helmet design included the "257" marking for this race.