Turkish Grand Prix: Massa, imperator of Istanbul.

The fifth leg of the Formula One championship was run today in Istanbul and Felipe Massa registered his third consecutive pole-victory combination on this circuit.

A very exciting race was offered to racing fans today mainly because the configuration of the circuit allows many overtaking chances to the pilots. We saw many position changes and battle throughout the field today.

Starting from the third position on the grid, Lewis Hamilton was on a three pit stops strategy while the Ferrari cars were on a two stop strategy. Being lighter than his opponents, Hamilton managed to overtake Felipe Massa before his first stop.

In the end, McLaren's strategy allowed the british driver to gain one position overall. The other McLaren driver, Heikki Kovalainen, experienced a front tire puncture after a contact with Kimi Raikkonen's car during the start. The puncture costed Kovalainen dearly as he did not score any points today as he finished in 12th position.

But nobody managed to keep Felipe Massa's pace who finally ended up winning his third consecutive race at Istanbul. Massa is the first pilot to win three races in a row at the same circuit since Michael Schumacher.

The BMW-Sauber cars did manage to recover a bit from their qualifying problems and placed in fourth and fifth place. Despite an ordinary performance, BMW is still second among constructors.

The Formula One championship will resume next week with the presentation of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Turkish Grand Prix top ten finish:

Winner: Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
2-Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
3-Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
4-Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber)
5-Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber)
6-Fernando Alonso (Renault)
7-Mark Webber (Red Bull)
8-Nico Rosberg (Williams)
9-David Coulthard (Red Bull)
10-Jarno Trulli (Toyota)

Drivers championship after 5/18 races:

1-Kimi Raikkonen 35 points
2-Felipe Massa 28 points
3-Lewis Hamilton 28 points
4-Robert Kubica 24 points
5-Nick Heidfeld 20 points
6-Heikki Kovalainen 14 points
7-Mark Webber 10 points
8-Fernando Alonso 9 points
9-Jarno Trulli 9 points
10-Nico Rosberg 8 points
11-Kazuki Nakajima 5 points
12-Jenson Button 3 points
13-Sebastien Bourdais 2 points

Constructors championship:

1-Ferrari 63 points
2-BMW-Sauber 44 points
3-McLaren-Mercedes 42 points
4-Williams 13 points
5-Red Bull 10 points
6-Toyota 9 points
7-Renault 9 points
8-Honda 3 points
9-Toro Rosso 2 points

(Picture: Felipe Massa, Getty Images.)