By Michelin Sport
August 27 2006

Fernando Alonso finished second in today's Turkish Grand Prix to extend his Formula One championship lead to 12 points with four races to go. The Spaniard split the Ferraris of first-time winner Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher and had to defend strongly during the race's final stages to keep the German at bay.

Massa made a clean start from pole position to beat Schumacher off the line - and third-fastest qualifier Alonso got between the Ferraris as the field reached the first turn. Schumacher moved across to reclaim second, however, and as Alonso eased off his close-following team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella braked hard in avoidance and spun around. That provoked a chain-reaction accident that involved several Michelin drivers, including Nick Heidfeld (who started fifth for BMW Sauber), Kimi Raikkonen and Scott Speed. All four continued after pitting for repairs, but Raikkonen crashed heavily within four corners of rejoining. He escaped with nothing worse than a sore back.

Alonso continued to follow the two Ferraris until lap 14, when the leaders all headed for the pits after the Safety Car was scrambled to allow Vitantonio Liuzzi's stranded Toro Rosso to be cleared from the track at Turn One. The Italian spun out when his rear axle locked suddenly.

Alonso emerged from the pits ahead of Schumacher - and the German subsequently lost time when he ran wide at Turn Eight. Alonso remained ahead of his pursuer after the second and final round of stops, but Schumacher fought back strongly in the closing stages. He made several attempts to pass the Spaniard, but the defending world champion held on to beat Schumacher by just 0.081s. Meanwhile, Massa had crossed the line to clinch his maiden F1 victory at the 66th attempt. Following Jenson Button's recent victory in Hungary, the sport had its second new winner in as many races.

Button finished fourth this time, ahead of Pedro de la Rosa and the recovering Fisichella. Rubens Barrichello also scored a point for Michelin.

Chrkistian Klien qualified a strong 10th but had to settle for 11th in the race after his car developed an imbalance. Robert Kubica finished 12th while first-corner victims Speed and Heidfeld were eventually 13th and 14th. David Coulthard was running just behind Klien in the closing stages, but a gearbox problem forced him to pit. He was classified 15th.

Raikkonen and Liuzzi were the only Michelin drivers not to finish. Michelin is now preparing for an intensive test at Monza, Italy, ahead of next month's Italian GP.

Nick Shorrock
Formula One Director
Michelin

"To me those final 16 laps felt like the longest of the season. For the fans this has been a fantastic race from start to finish, but the battle between Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher was particularly outstanding. Fernando did an exceptional job to resist such pressure and strengthen his bid for a second consecutive F1 world title.

"From a technical perspective I’m very pleased with the way our tyres performed. We witnessed a little bit of graining during at the start of the stints, but generally our products held up very well in one of the season’s most demanding races.

"We are now going to Monza for a one week test with a heavy program, looking at tyres choices for future Grands Prix but also looking at ways to improve our first lap performances. If successful this will open up new strategies for our partners."