Late puncture hits Hamilton hopes

Istanbul Park 24-26 August, 2007

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Lewis Hamilton's championship lead was cut to five points by McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso after the Englishman suffered a late puncture in Turkey.

Hamilton was on course for third place behind the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen when his right-front tyre fell apart with 15 laps to go.

The drama enabled Alonso to slip by into third place and left Hamilton in fifth behind BMW's Nick Heidfeld.

His car damaged by the puncture, Hamilton was not able to fight back.

He had been forced to trail back to the pits for the last third of the lap at Istanbul Park, and the flailing tyre damaged some of the aerodynamic parts at the front of his car.

That meant he was much slower than before the problem, and Heidfeld was able to pull away, leaving the McLaren driver to concentrate on staying ahead of Renault's Heikki Kovalainen.

Until the late puncture, Hamilton had had an uneventful race, with the Ferraris just too fast for him to challenge at the front.

The red cars were never more than a handful of seconds ahead of Hamilton, but they had enough pace to ensure he was never in the fight for the lead.

Massa led away from pole position at the start as Hamilton, lacking grip on the slippery side of the track, lost second place to Raikkonen.

Alonso, directly behind his team-mate in fourth place on the grid, fared even worse, and dropped down to sixth behind both BMW Saubers, which he had to follow until they made their first pit stops.

The Spaniard made a couple of abortive attempts to pass Heidfeld once the German's team-mate Robert Kubica made his first pit stop early on lap 12, but had to wait until Heidfeld's stop on lap 17 to assume fourth place.

The world champion stopped only a lap later than Heidfeld, but it was enough for the McLaren to leapfrog the BMW.

Once Hamilton made his stop two laps later, the Englishman was about 14 seconds ahead of his team-mate.

And while Alonso was able to hold the gap, and occasionally close it, he was not able to make a significant impression on Hamilton until the late-race drama.

Ahead of the McLarens, the Ferraris were fighting a private battle.

Raikkonen closely followed Massa for the first stint of the race, giving the impression that he was the faster of the two.

But the Finn stopped a lap earlier than Massa, who emerged from the pit stops with a two-second lead.

He held the margin and looked in complete control until a few laps before his second and final pit stop when he was held up in traffic and Raikkonen closed right up on to his tail.

But Massa kept his cool and, again stopping a lap later than Raikkonen, held the lead to the end.

Massa's win meant he moved one point ahead of Raikkonen in the championship, but still 15 points adrift of Hamilton.

Kovalainen was not able to catch Hamilton's McLaren and the Finn finished sixth after a strong race in the Renault, with Williams's Nico Rosberg and BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica taking the final points positions.

Source: BBC Sport