Ferrari's Felipe Massa won the Turkish Grand Prix from pole position for the third year in a row yesterday after tire concerns slowed Lewis Hamilton's challenge.

The Brazilian took the checkered flag 3.7 seconds ahead of the 23-year-old McLaren driver, who ran most of the race on the harder tires and had to make three pitstops compared to his rivals' two.

It was Massa's seventh win in Formula One, at the anti-clockwise Istanbul Speed Park track where he took his first in 2006, and his second in five races this season.

Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen saw his overall lead trimmed to seven points from nine after finishing a close third. The Finn, the only driver to score points in every race this season, now has 35 to Massa and Hamilton's 28.

Massa's win was champion Ferrari's fourth in a row and meant that the Turkish GP, which made its debut in 2005, has still only ever been won by the driver on pole position.

Three of his wins have come in Turkey, prompting a suggestion that the Brazilian should change nationality: "I think I can get a passport here already," he grinned.

Poland's Robert Kubica was fourth, ahead of BMW Sauber teammate Nick Heidfeld of Germany.

Double world champion Fernando Alonso of Spain put Renault back in the points with sixth place while Australian Mark Webber was seventh to score for the fourth race in a row. Germany's Nico Rosberg took the final point for Williams.

Massa led from the start while Hamilton, winner of the season-opener in Australia, accelerated past his McLaren teammate Heikki Kovalainen from third on the grid with Kubica close behind.

The safety car came out at the end of the opening lap when Italian Giancarlo Fisichella's Force India slammed into the back of Kazuki Nakajima's Williams at the first corner, leaving debris on the track.

Kovalainen, coming back from a big accident two weeks ago and making his first start on the front row, went to the back of the field when he pitted at the end of the second lap with a puncture after banging wheels with Raikkonen. He finished 12th.

Hamilton pitted after 16 laps and then brilliantly overtook Massa, who had come in three laps later, for the lead on lap 24.

The Briton then pitted again at the end of lap 32, with Massa again taking over at the front until his second and final pitstop when Raikkonen took over for three laps before again leaving Hamilton ahead.

But the youngster knew he had to pit again for the softer tires, with drivers having to use both types during the race, and he made his third stop with 13 laps to go before coming back out in second place.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily May 12, 2008)