Ferrari’s Felipe Massa led home his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen with a dominant display in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Brazilian led from the start and resisted a race-long pressure from Raikkonen to reignited his and Ferrari’s title challenge.

It was an important win for Massa as the team’s president Luca di Montezemolo had set a target of scoring 1-2 finishes in the remaining six races in order to turn the tables on rival McLaren. Now that we are heading into Ferrari’s home race in a fortnight’s time (Monza), the first stage of this target has been achieved.

It also helps that the championship leader Lewis Hamilton could only finish in fifth after suffering a puncture.

Hamilton was on course to finish in third but with just 15 laps to go, his front-right Bridgestone exploded… Luckily, he managed to get his car back to the pits but the consequent delay dropped him behind his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso – who had lost ground with a poor start – and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld.

And although he salvaged four points with fifth position, his misfortune gifted team-mate Alonso a podium, which allows the Spaniard to close within five points in the race for the drivers’ title.

The double world champion was lucky to inherit third as he made a poor getaway off the grid. In fact, neither McLarens got away well at the start of the race, with Hamilton immediately losing second to Raikkonen and Alonso dropping to sixth behind the two BMW Saubers.

Although the Spaniard managed to re-pass both Robert Kubica and Heidfeld during the first pit sequence, Alonso had already fallen 14 seconds adrift of the leaders by this time. He proceeded to match Hamilton’s pace, but could not gain any ground and would not have bettered fourth place if his team-mate’s race had run trouble-free.

Finishing in sixth went to Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen, who drove a strong race and at one point, actually led the Grand Prix! The Finn even had a opportunity to pass Hamilton’s damaged car in the closing stages of the race, but in the end Kovalainen crossed the line a second adrift behind the McLaren.

Nico Rosberg was another driver who put in a fine performance for Williams. The German finished in seventh, just about holding off the chasing Robert Kubica in the BMW Sauber. Kubica’s strategy of making early pit-stops cost the BMW Sauber driver dear, as he fell behind Alonso, Heidfeld and Kovalainen in the first sequence. And then he lost out another race position to Rosberg at the final stops.

But no such worries for Ferrari, as the team scored an impressive result. This was Massa’s second consecutive Turkish Grand Prix win and the Brazilian has significantly close the points gap between himself and the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton to just 15 points.

In the constructors’ championship, McLaren retain their lead with 148 points to Ferrari’s 137, while BMW Sauber are still a healthy third on 78 as the championship moves to Monza.

Turkish Grand Prix race result – 58 laps

1. MASSA Ferrari 1h26m42.161s
2. RAIKKONEN Ferrari +2.2s
3. ALONSO McLaren +26.1s
4. HEIDFELD BMW +39.6s
5. HAMILTON McLaren +45.0s
6. KOVALAINEN Renault +46.1s
7. ROSBERG Williams +55.7s
8. KUBICA BMW +56.7s
9. FISICHELLA Renault +59.4s
10. COULTHARD Red Bull +1m11.0s
11. WURZ Williams +1m19.6s
12. R SCHUMACHER Toyota +1 lap
13. BUTTON Honda +1 laps
14. DAVIDSON Super Aguri +1 laps
15. LIUZZI Toro Rosso +1 laps
16. TRULLI Toyota +1 lap
17. BARRICHELLO Honda +1 lap
18. SATO Super Aguri +1 lap
19. VETTEL Toro Rosso +1 lap
20. YAMAMOTO Spyker +2 laps
21. SUTIL Spyker +5 laps
R. WEBBER Red Bull +49 laps

Fastest lap: RAIKKONEN 1min. 27.295 secs

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa beats the world championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the final moments of qualifying to take his fifth pole position of the season.

The Brazilian has a good record at the Istanbul Park race circuit. Massa scored his first pole position and race victory last year, so to repeat his qualifying performance this season is a fantastic achievement.

Initially, Lewis Hamilton had the advantage after making the switch to the white stripes Bridgestone tyres during his final run. The Formula One rookie set the benchmark with a time of one minute, 27.373 seconds. But as his McLaren team were celebrating, Felipe Massa had the faster momentum out of the tricky final sequences of corners to cross the line with a time of one minute, 27.329 seconds.

This edge out Hamilton down to second but both drivers out-performed their respective team-mates, who will line up behind in third and fourth.

Kimi Raikkonen blew his chance to take top spot when he made a slight error into the penultimate corner. His time of one minute, 27.546 seconds was sufficient enough to keep McLaren’s Fernando Alonso down in fourth with a lap time of one minute, 27.574 seconds.

The double world champion opted for the harder Bridgestone compound in his bid to set the quickest time, but this gamble didn’t work and will line up on row two.

Behind the Ferrari and McLaren pair, Robert Kubica drove a great lap to record one minute, 27.722 seconds to take fifth for BMW-Sauber. Team-mate Nick Heidfeld is directly behind with one minute, 28.037 seconds, while Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg in the Williams completed row four with one minute, 28.491 seconds and one minute, 28.501 seconds respectively.

Row five comprises Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on one minute, 28.740 seconds, and Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault on one minute, 29.322 seconds.

Star performance of qualifying goes to Anthony Davidson. He beat his Japanese team-mate Takuma Sato by a long margin (Sato will start in P19), so to qualifying his Super Aguri just outside the top ten is a remarkable achievement for the British driver.

Looking at the times between the Ferraris and McLarens, Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix will be very tense for the four drivers as the championship moves into the final six races of the year. Felipe Massa is determined to turn his pole position with race victory, while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen needs to strike back on else the Finn drops out of contention for the 2007 drivers’ title. As for Lewis Hamilton, he has track advantage over Fernando Alonso so another good result at Istanbul will be a huge benefit towards achieving his dream result of winning his first title in only his first season of Formula One racing. Alonso on the other hand, will want to close down the championship points gap by outracing both his team-mate and the Ferrari pair. It should be a thrilling race!

Starting grid for the Turkish Grand Prix

1. MASSA Ferrari 1:27.329
2. HAMILTON McLaren 1:27.373
3. RAIKKONEN Ferrari 1:27.546
4. ALONSO McLaren 1:27.574
5. KUBICA BMW 1:27.722
6. HEIDFELD BMW 1:28.037
7. KOVALAINEN Renault 1:28.491
8. ROSBERG Williams 1:28.501
9. TRULLI Toyota 1:28.740
10. FISICHELLA Renault 1:29.322
11. DAVIDSON Super Aguri 1:28.002
12. WEBBER Red Bull 1:28.013
13. COULTHARD Red Bull 1:28.100
14. BARRICHELLO Honda 1:28.188
15. BUTTON Honda 1:28.220
16. WURZ Williams 1:28.390
17. LIUZZI Toro Rosso 1:28.798
18. R SCHUMACHER Toyota 1:28.809
19. SATO Super Aguri 1:28.953
20. VETTEL Toro Rosso 1:29.408
21. SUTIL Spyker 1:29.861
22. YAMAMOTO Spyker 1:31.479

Since 2002, only one driver remained unbeatable on the Rallye Deutschland. His name? Sébastien Loeb. His achievement? Winning the event for the sixth time, thereby closing the championship gap to rival Marcus Grönholm to eight points.

Loeb dominated the three-day event with ease and it was fitting that his main championship rival lost track position after losing control in his Ford Focus. Grönholm should have finished in second, but under extreme pressure by the flying Citroen of Francois Duval, the Finn went off in the final stage… Handing the position to Duval.

Grönholm managed to continue in his damaged car and was lucky to finish fourth, behind his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen.

After crossing the line, Frenchman Loeb expresses his gratitude to Duval for pressuring Grönholm into his error.

“I must say thank you to Francois Duval because he was pushing incredibly hard,” Loeb said.

Duval was equally thrilled with his second place. “I pushed a lot… I’m very happy – after eight months (away) it’s incredible.”

So a great drive by the two Citroen WRC drivers. The championship now heads to New Zealand in two weeks time. Can Sébastien Loeb reduce the points gap further?