Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand-Prix. With Kimi Raikkonen finishing second Ferrari took a 1-2 victory. Fernando Alonso finished third, Hamilton ended after a puncture in fifth spot.
Although the Ferraris were dominant in Istanbul, Hamilton was on course to further extend his drivers’ title lead in Istanbul by finishing third; ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso.
Instead, the right-front puncture with 15 laps to go dropped him behind the Spaniard to fifth place, allowing Alonso – who inherited the final podium spot – to close the gap from seven to just five points.
As well as losing time nursing the flailing tyre back to the pits, Hamilton then completed the race with a damaged front wing and could not catch BMW’s Nick Heidfeld.
But the cool 22-year-old commented: “It was just a little bit of a problem. You always have setbacks. I’m still leading by five points. It is not over.”
Back-to-back Turkey winner Felipe Massa, meanwhile, revealed that he also faced a challenge on Sunday despite converting his pole.
The Brazilian said an air-feature on his helmet broke, causing turbulence, “so I just took it away, ripped it off and then it was better”.
His Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen set easily the fastest lap of the race, and rued Saturday’s qualifying error that had left him third on the grid.
Grand-Prix van Turkije, race
1 F. Massa Ferrari 1:26:42.161
2 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 2.275
3 F. Alonso McLaren + 26.181
4 N. Heidfeld BMW + 39.674
5 L. Hamilton McLaren + 45.085
6 H. Kovalainen Renault + 46.169
7 N. Rosberg Williams + 55.778
8 R. Kubica BMW + 56.707
9 G. Fisichella Renault + 59.491
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull + 1:11.009
11 A. Wurz Williams + 1:19.628
12 R. Schumacher Toyota + 1 lap
13 J. Button Honda + 1 lap
14 A. Davidson Super Aguri + 1 lap
15 V. Liuzzi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 lap
16 J. Trulli Toyota + 1 lap
17 R. Barrichello Honda + 1 lap
18 T. Sato Super Aguri + 1 lap
19 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 lap
20 S. Yamamoto Spyker F1 + 2 laps
21 A. Sutil Spyker F1 + 5 laps
