Turkish GP: Race results and Notes

Panasonic Toyota Racing will leave Istanbul with two points after an eventful afternoon's work in today's Turkish Grand Prix. On a blisteringly hot day at the Istanbul Park, with track temperatures again above 50 degrees Celsius, Toyota's driver Ralf Schumacher had it all to do today from his respective grid position.

Unfortunately he lost ground on the first lap after he was caught up in the carnage of a major first corner incident that involved nearly half the field. Thankfully he was able to continue, although had to stop for a new front wing which left him way down the running order. The team switched his strategy to include only one further pit stop and he was able to make it up into the points in an eventual 7th place.

Ralf Schumacher: "It was always going to be hard work starting so far back on the grid today so it was a big achievement to score two points. Of course there was also the danger of being caught up in an incident at the first corner here and so it proved. It was chaotic and unfortunately I lost my front wing. I lost time when I pitted to replace it, but at least we were able to fill up with fuel so we would need only one more stop."

"Early on in the first stint I struggled with understeer on the heavy load but that improved after the safety car and I was able to make up some ground. The balance was good after my second stop and I was able to push hard. Again we have shown a lot of potential this weekend. Now it's just down to us to get it right and avoid any more small problems. That way we can challenge for the podium again soon."

Tsutomu Tomita - Team Principal: "When Ralf pitted for a new front wing we used the chance to fuel him up and change our strategy to an effective one-stopper. He also damaged some aerodynamic parts and he complained about the balance in the early part of the race. But the safety car played into his hands and from then on his balance improved and he scored a strong points finish."

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Points
1	F. Massa	Ferrari	1:28:51.082	10
2	F. Alonso	Renault	+ 5.575	8
3	M. Schumacher	Ferrari	+ 5.656	6
4	J. Button	Honda	+ 12.334	5
5	P. de la Rosa	McLaren	+ 45.908	4
6	G. Fisichella	Renault	+ 46.584	3
7	R. Schumacher	Toyota	+ 59.337	2
8	R. Barrichello	Honda	+ 1:00.034	1
9	J. Trulli	Toyota	+ 1 laps	0
10	M. Webber	Williams	+ 1 laps	0
11	C. Klien	Red Bull	+ 1 laps	0
12	R. Kubica	BMW	+ 1 laps	0
13	S. Speed	Scuderia Toro Rosso	+ 1 laps	0
14	N. Heidfeld	BMW	+ 2 laps	0
Did not finish
15	D. Coulthard	Red Bull	+ 3 laps	0
16	C. Albers	Midland F1	+ 12 laps	0
17	T. Sato	Super Aguri	+ 15 laps	0
18	N. Rosberg	Williams	+ 33 laps	0
19	S. Yamamoto	Super Aguri	+ 34 laps	0
20	V. Liuzzi	Scuderia Toro Rosso	+ 45 laps	0
21	K. Räikkönen	McLaren	+ 56 laps	0
22	T. Monteiro	Midland F1	+ 58 laps	0