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[F1Fanatic]

Two notes heading into the Grand Prix of Turkey:

* With the demise of the Super Aguri team, the FIA has changed qualifying (again). Five (instead of six) cars will be eliminated from each of the first two qualifying sessions, leaving the usual 10 cars to battle for pole in the third session.

* McLaren driver Heikki Kovalainen has been declared fit to race by the doctors. You've got to consider that a minor miracle, given the impact he took in Spain and what his car looked like.

[F1Fanatic]

Felipe Massa won the Grand Prix of Turkey for the third year in a row, becoming the first driver since Michael Schumacher to win the same Grand Prix three consecutive years. Massa's victory this season was significantly closer than in previous years, however.

McLaren opted for a three-stop strategy for Lewis Hamilton because of a tire graining issue, and that, combined with Kimi Raikkonen's damaged front wing from a Turn One incident with Heikki Kovalainen, enabled Hamilton to finish 2nd, and he was clearly quicker than Massa down the stretch....it was the classic case of running out of time/laps.

Raikkonen managed to finish 3rd about a second behind Hamilton, but he was never able to get close enough to even try to pass. Hamilton just looked too fast the whole day.

In fact, the odd thing watching the race was how the SpeedChannel guys kept telling us how much faster the Ferraris were.....and exactly where the McLarens were slower and why. In the meantime, those of us who were actually watching the race kept seeing lap times where Hamilton was faster than Massa and just as fast as Raikkonen. From listening to the announcers, you'd have figured that Hamilton was 30 seconds behind both of them.

Heikki had to pit for tires because of a puncture after the incident with Kimi and was only able to charge to 12th by the end of the race. McLaren kept him on a three-stop strategy, which seemed like a huge mistake to me at the time. He ended up having to make that 3rd stop only 8 laps from the finish.....it seems that McLaren was just too spooked about having to use the faster-compound tire, and that killed Heikki's chances for points.

The BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld finished 4th-5th with Fernando Alonso a ways behind them for 6th. Mark Webber finished in the points again for Red Bull with a 7th place finish, and Nico Rosberg finished 8th for Williams to earn the final point. It should be noted that both David Coulthard and Sebastian Vettel, who have both had trouble simply staying in races this year, finished this race, albeit a ways back. At least Coulthard managed not to hit anybody today.

The only spectacular incident today was in Turn One, when Giancarlo Fisichella started from 20th and braked late for the turn.....to late. He ended up literally running up the back of Kaz Nakajima, knocking them both out of the race. Not Fisi's most professional racing moment.....not at all.

So Ferrari heads into racing's premier event, the Grand Prix of Monaco, 1-2 in the World Driver's Championship (while Hamilton has the same number of points as Massa, he loses on the tiebreaker because Massa has now won twice) and 1st in the World Constructor's Championship. But I'm guessing while the media will focus on them, the media fenzy will be all about Max Mosley and his scandal.