Räikkönen's third place meant that at least he started from the clean side of the track and this, allied to Ferrari's choice of the softer tyre, and maybe more effective launch control meant that the Ferraris rocketed away. Kimi went past Hamilton like he was going backwards, giving the Ferraris the positions they maintained to the end. By contrast Alonso made a bad start and was jumped by both Bimmers. Kubica stopped first of anyone and Alonso was also fueled longer that Heidfeld, thus enabling him to pass in the pits, which increasingly seems to be the only place where such things can happen. He came home a comfortable third albeit 24 seconds behind the flying Fazzas.

It was bad enough that the wretched track in Hungary meant there was no racing, but Istanbul is a fantastic track and still there was no racing, Räikkönen saying "At this stage in F1 it is difficult to get past" and this being confirmed by Alonso. It seems that going in-car through turn 8 is all the enjoyment we can expect. Let us hope that the FIA's Overtaking Working Group come up with something - moveable front wings seem favourite at the moment. Qualifying is just as dull, most TV directors seemingly having the uncanny knack of choosing the wrong camera at the wrong time. If it's just not possible to get this right then change the system! Single car qualifying was better than this. Now the highlight of qualifying is who wins the tickover challenge. This time it was Ferrari and the cars pulled away on all cylinders, something the FOC's V12 Group will find unbelievable!

And what of Hamilton? He could do nothing about the Ferraris but was comfortable in third until he suffered a violent puncture, a front tyre delaminating, and a huge length of tread flailing round for half a lap. He got back to the pits and resumed, coming home fifth. He was very lucky, it being a miracle that the flailing tread didn't do more damage than it did, or maybe it was talent in him judging the right speed at which to bring the crippled car in. There was extra drama as Macca also brought Alonso in as he was due to stop anyway and they feared a Safety Car . This time he cleared the pit box before Lucy came in, but his Hungarian tactics would not have worked anyway as the pit lane here is long enough for both drivers to have private facilities.

Kovalainen chased Hamilton down but could not catch him, reducing the gap from four seconds to one at the flag. After a shaky start he has now overtaken his hugely experienced team-mate in the points table. Rosberg was seventh again for Williams with another fine performance and Kubica eighth for BMW Sauber.

All this meant that of the eight points-scoring places half of them were filled by Young Guns. Of the others, Davidson did brilliantly to qualify 11th in his Super Aguri, though he lost ground badly at the start and could only manage 14th. Sadly, it looks like he might lose his drive next year as his cash-strapped team may be forced to take on a renta driver. If they survive I wonder what car Super Aguri will be using next year? I can't imagine it'd be the '07 Honda...... I expect to see those on Racecars Direct in the winter, followed thereafter by one appearing at a clubbie hillclimb with a Fireblade engine strapped in the back!

One bloke who has lost his seat next year is Tonio Liuzzi. who finished one place behind Davidson. He out-qualified his new team mate, Wunderkind Sebastian Vettel, who could only manage 19th ahead of the two Spykers of Sutil and Yamamoto. This does suggest that perhaps not all of their problems lie with the drivers. However racing is only one of a driver's key skills and Vettel said "We have to see now why we were not able to run at the pace we had expected. Now, I am looking forward to having my first proper test with the team at Monza next week".

Much of ITV's coverage was again devoted to giving McLaren and their sponsors free publicity. Lucy was interviewed bemoaning the Media's intrusion into his private life, yet all the time togged out in full team gear. There then followed a behind the scenes feature about the making of an advert for one of their sponsors! It used to be said that all an actor owed the public was a performance, but there's also a saying that you can't have your cake and eat it too, especially in today's celebrity-obsessed world. [Interestingly the Italian version of that proverb is "You can't have a full barrel and a drunk wife" - Ed.].

There was yet more evidence of Alonso's deteriorating relationship with his employer when he claimed that he hadn't been rewarded for bringing six-tenths of a second to the car, then he turned up in Turkey with facial hair. This is OK for yoof teams like Red Bull, or eco-warriors like Honda, but is (allegedly) a big no-no at the Grey Empire. The face fungus was gone by the Saturday, but I think Macca's marketing men missed a point. If I was them I'd be straight on the phone to Wilkinson Sword proposing a sponsored shave-off at every GP! BTW my barber reckons Hamilton has his hair cut every week. - that's £9.50 - how the heck can he afford that?

So that was it; Massa acclaimed his victory as "amazing". Given Ferrari's superiority here it would have been amazing if they hadn't won. Appropriately, the definition of a turkey shoot is "An opportunity for an individual or a party to very easily take advantage of a situation" which Ferrari clearly did. Massa is now 15 points behind Championship leader Hamilton and Ferrari 11 behind Macca in the Constructors'. Monza is coming up next - Forza Ferrari!

Editor's Note
Has anyone else noticed that the drivers are in team pairs all the way down their Championship table from first to 14th place and that these are in the same order as the teams in their Championship?

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