GP – Massa celebrates his fantastic victory

The Ferrari driver claimed his third consecutive victory in Istanbul. The opposition this year has been strong with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, who finished second after adopting an aggressive three-stop race strategy.

This victory is the second of the season for the Brazilian and the fourth for Ferrari in just five races.

Massa is now in second place in the standings, level on points with Hamilton. Both are seven points behind the current leader, Kimi Räikkönen.

« It’s simply fantastic. It was a very difficult race. Lewis Hamilton was very aggressive and insistent, especially at the beginning of the race, » said the Ferrari driver.

« When I made my stop, I thought he was going to do the same. The team then told me he was on three stops. »

« He was very fast and at one point I couldn’t hold him back any longer, he then overtook me. I knew I still had a chance to win the race since he had to stop three times. »

« It was difficult, but in the end, it’s a third consecutive victory in Turkey. I think I can apply for Turkish citizenship! » Massa added jokingly.

The Brazilian acknowledged that the choice of tires for the race was very difficult.

« Even on the first lap and during the race, the hard tires were performing much better than on Friday, but we used the soft ones today. However, I saw Lewis Hamilton going very fast with the hard tires. It might have been a mistake. »

Massa and Ferrari hope to continue their impressive winning streak in Monaco in two weeks, even though this Grand Prix has proven difficult for the Scuderia in recent years.

« McLaren was very strong last year on the rock. There is a lot of work to be done on setting up the cars for Monte Carlo. »