Formula 1: Massa’s Second Pole Victory of The Season
May 10, 2008
Shell
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa captured the pole for Turkish Grand Prix Formula One race. It was his third consecutive pole win in Turkey and he won the race the other two times he started up front. The No.2 Ferrari circled the 3.317-mile, 13-turn Istanbul Autodrom in one minutes, 27.617 seconds.
The pole victory was Massa’s second of the season and 11th of his F1 career.
“I think I put together a very good lap, it proved to be enough to be on pole,” Massa said. “I’m so happy here, to be on pole for the third time here. It’s a fantastic track for me.”
Massa was less than two-tenths of a second ahead of the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen who pipped second from team-mate Lewis Hamilton after the Brit, perhaps unwisely, decided to stick with hard tyres as the temperature rapidly rose.
It was an impressive performance from Kovalainen, coming barely two weeks after his horrific crash at Imola. “It’s been a bit of a roller coaster obviously,” Kovalainen said. “I had a big accident in Spain and I have been lucky to survive without any injuries. Coming here ... I felt very confident with the car. It’s a pleasure to start from front row.”
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari and it may be that he is running more fuel than Massa. The Finn lapped in 1m 27.936s, compared to Hamilton’s 1m 27.923s.
Robert Kubica put his BMW Sauber fifth on the grid, followed by Mark Webber for Red Bull, Fernando Alonso for Renault, Jarno Trulli for Toyota and birthday boy Nick Heidfeld for BMW Sauber.
