Massa wins from the front

Formula One/ Turkish Grand Prix: Ferrari's junior partner Felipe Massa took his maiden grand prix win from pole position in Istanbul yesterday, but it was the dent the young Brazilian made in team-mate Michael Schumacher's Formula one title chances that will be the talking point of his race.

Massa has begun the afternoon in pole position, achieved on Saturday and relegating Schumacher to second on the grid, ahead of their main rivals, the twin Renaults of Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella.

At the start Schumacher, who looked like being eclipsed by both Renaults, swerved left to block the challenge of Alonso and then dived right to force Fisichella into a heavy braking manoeuvre. It sparked chaos behind as a hard-charging David Coulthard was forced to stand on his brakes to avoid collision.

Those behind were not so lucky as a host of cars were involved in incidents. In the end only Midland Tiago Monteiro failed to get going again, but Fisichella was forced to the pits for a new nose cone, taking him out of the battle for the podium.

Up ahead, Massa was establishing a lead, but was being closely monitored by Schumacher, with Alonso right behind. And then, on lap 14, Vitantonio Liuzzi, under pressure from Midland's Christijan Albers, spun in turn one.

The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver was left beached on the kerbs on the outside of the corner and the safety car immediately entered the fray. It was to prove the decisive moment of Schumacher's race.

Ferrari called both its drivers into the pits at the same time and despite the obvious need to get Schumacher in and out first, to maintain his position ahead of Alonso, the German was forced to sit and wait in the pitlane as Massa slotted in just in front to receive fuel and tyres first.

Alonso's Renault team must have jumped for joy at that point, as the Spaniard too had dived for the pits and Schumacher's queuing allowed the defending champion to roar out of the pits ahead of his only real championship rival.

That put the order as Massa, Alonso and Schumacher. From there Alonso was able to control Schumacher's pace as he defended solidly, with Massa ahead building an unassailable leading gap.

A win for the Brazilian would make no impact on Alonso's chances of retaining his title, but to keep Schumacher in third was a crucial result, pushing the seven-times champion into a 12-point deficit with four races of the season remaining.

"We were lucky with the safety car and overtook Michael there and I could pull away a little bit because I was a bit lighter on fuel," Alonso said.

"Michael later also went wide in turn eight which cost him three or four seconds which was probably the key to staying ahead at the second stop.

"I managed to finish ahead by half a car, but enough to be second," he added. "I'm happy, but not too happy because we couldn't win the race as it was impossible to catch Felipe. To be honest I was confident at the end and was playing with the revs a bit depending on how the distance was with Michael."

Schumacher, pensive in the post-race press conference, deflected questions about his fading championship chances by turning his attention to Massa.

"But first of all my congratulations to Felipe who did a superb job and opened up a gap at the start of the race," Schumacher said. "I managed to close it a bit before the safety car but nevertheless he didn't make a mistake and brought it home."

While Massa's win did his team-mate no favours, it did push Ferrari closer to Renault in the constructors' championship. With Alonso's team-mate Fisichella relegated to sixth yesterday, behind Button and McLaren's Pedro de la Rosa, Ferrari, on 158, have closed to within two points of leaders Renault.

Details:

1 F Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1hr 28mins 51.082secs

2 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:28:56.582

3 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 1:28:56.682

4 J Button (Gbr) Honda 1:29:03.382,

5 P de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren 1:29:36.982

6 G Fisichella (Ita) Renault 1:29:37.582

7 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 1:29:50.382

8 R Barrichello (Bra) Honda 1:29:51.082

9 J Trulli (Ita) Toyota at 1 lap

10 M Webber (Aus) Williams at 1 lap, 11 C Klien (Aut) Red Bull at 1 lap, 12 R Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber at 1 lap, 13 S Speed (USA) Scuderia Toro Rosso at 1 lap, 14 N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber at 2 laps, 15 T Sato (Jpn) Super Aguri at 17 laps

Not Classified: 16 D Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 55 laps completed, 17 C Albers (Ned) Midland 46 laps completed, 18 N Rosberg (Ger) Williams 25 laps completed, 19 S Yamamoto (Jpn) Super Aguri 23 laps completed, 20 V Liuzzi (Ita) S Toro Rosso 12 laps completed, 21 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 2 laps completed, 22 T Monteiro (Por) Midland 0 laps completed

Fastest Lap: Michael Schumacher (Ger) 1:28.005 (Lap 56)

Drivers' Championship

1 F Alonso (Spa) Renault 108

2 M Schumacher (Ger) Ferrari 96

3 F Massa (Bra) Ferrari 62

4 G Fisichella (Ita) Renault 52

5 K Raikkonen (Fin) McLaren 49

6 J Button (Gbr) Honda 36

7 J Montoya (Col) McLaren 26

8 R Barrichello (Bra) Honda 22

9 N Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 19

10 R Schumacher (Ger) Toyota 18

11 P de la Rosa (Spa) McLaren 14, 12 D Coulthard (Gbr) Red Bull 14, 13 J Trulli (Ita) Toyota 10, 14 J Villeneuve (Can) BMW Sauber 7, 15 M Webber (Aus) Williams 6, 16 N Rosberg (Ger) Williams 4, 17 C Klien (Aut) Red Bull 2, 18 V Liuzzi (Ita) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1.

Manufacturers' Championship

1 Renault 160

2 Ferrari 158

3 McLaren 89

4 Honda 58

5 Toyota 28

6 BMW Sauber 26

7 Red Bull 16

8 Williams 10

9 Scuderia Toro Rosso 1