Massa on top

After a three week hiatus, the 22 car F1 caravan hit the circuit for the Turkish Grand Prix. With the hangover from the Hungarian Grand Prix still present, this race promised to be a keenly fought contest. The qualifying sessions on Saturday put a Ferrari on pole as usual. The only difference being, the guy in the driver's seat wasn't Schumacher but his team-mate - Felipe Massa. Schumacher qualified in the second place followed by his title rival Alonso.

There was entertainment right from the word go as Giancarlo Fisichella spun going into the first corner, causing a multi car pile up behind him. This took out a score of cars including Mc Laren's Kimi Raikkonen, who has almost equalled Super Aguri's record of retirements this season!! Lap 13 brought bad luck again as the safety car came out following the stalling of Vitantonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso. Everyone tried to gain advantage of the situation by coming in to the pits. What could have been a gem of a move turned out to be a disaster for Ferrari, as Michael Schumacher had to literally wait behind his team mate while he refuelled. This gave Alonso the much needed opportunity to overtake Schumi and this set the tone for the laps to follow.

Schumacher drove at his spirited best to try and reduce the gap between Alonso and him and in the process ran wide of the track losing more time in the bargain. The last third of the race was a two-way battle between Alonso and Schumacher as they battled for the second spot and some valuable championship points. Meanwhile Massa drove a copybook race and kept out of trouble throughout. He crossed the chequered flag to win his first ever Grand Prix victory in Formula One. Alonso and Schumacher took the battle right down to the wire and Alonso finally won by half a car length to gain a two point advantage over his rival.

The gap between the two top drivers has now widened to 12 points with four races still to go. The next race at Monza - the home ground for Ferrari, will be a make or break one for Schumacher if he wants to keep his championship hopes alive.