Winning his third Grand Prix race of the season from start to finish, Kimi Raikkonen took the inaugural Grand Prix of Turkey at Istanbul this past Sunday. However, Formula One series leader, Fernando Alonso, took advantage of a late Juan Pablo Montoya spin, to grab second place and take a 24 point lead over Raikkonen for the world driver’s championship.

Takuma Sato got things going right before the start of the race, pitting his Honda and starting the race from the same position. Alonso, Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella all battled head to head on lap one as all three racers rubbed wheels with each other, before the Finn finally got in front of both Anglo-French cars and never gave up the lead again.

Michael Schumacher, who spun during qualifying and had to start from the back row, suddenly used his entire Ferrari power and moved up to 12th place by the end of the fourth lap, while. Williams BMW drivers Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber both suffered rear wheel punctures that took both cars out of the race

Raikkonen maintained his dominance and by lap 12, the Finn already found it hard to shake off his Spanish challenger. He was leading at that point by 1.6 seconds before Alonso decided to make a stop on lap 13, after beginning the race with very light fuel.

Webber returned to the race again after his first tire change, and caught up to Schumacher, who moved up one position from 12th to 11th. The Australian took the inside of the German on the final turn leading to the straightaway, and pushed his wing into the Ferrari driver’s back left tire, which caused the Williams car to lose it’s front wing, and totally disabling the seven time world champion’s suspension.

While Webber managed to repair his problem, Schumacher came into the pits and endured a 40 second stop. He decided to call it a day on lap 16, but then returned to the race on lap 34 for testing that would be useful at the next Grand Prix race in Italy.

Then more retirements began to happen. After Webber and Heidfeld finally left the race, Felipe Massa slowly came into the pits and the Petronas engine decided to expire right on the scene. It took a few of his Sauber mechanics to push the Brazilian’s car backwards into the garage, 28 laps from the end.

With 13 laps to go, Raikkonen now held a 16.2 second lead over his teammate Montoya, while Alonso, after his final pit stop, remained a close third. But, suffering from a flat spotted right front tire, the Colombian collided with back marker Diego Montiero, spun off, and returned to the track, only for Alonso to close in right behind him.

However, the action was not over yet as Montoya spun for a second time, finally putting the Spaniard into second place for good. It was not needed to chase Raikkonen for the lead as the gap between the two was still wide enough in the world championship for Alonso to be comfortable.

Raikkonen took the flag, but realized that he was far from really challenging Alonso for the title, with still five races left. Montoya ran right behind Alonso for third, while Fisichella took fourth, his best result in a while.

Jenson Button was fifth; Jarno Trulli in his Toyota was sixth; and the Red Bull cars of David Coulthard and Christian Klien took the last two point positions.

"I was confident, and I knew I had the best speed," Raikkonen stated to F1 presenter Peter Windsor after the race. "But you just go for it when you have the best chance."