Let’s start with innovation and rules. We had the ruling of the FIA International Court of Appeal against the mass damping system used by Renault and others. It is impossible to avoid mentioning that one of the four members of the Court is Anthony Scrivener QC, whose previous clients have included Dame Shirley Porter, Asil Nadir, Ernest Saunders, and who, last October, was invited to defend Saddam Hussein.

The court judged that mass damping was illegal, the ideal decision. It makes the championship more exciting, although it would obviously have been better had Alonso been docked, say, 12 points, it removes a potentially expensive and irrelevant developmental blind alley and it demonstrates that, as we all suspected, Alonso and Renault did have an Unfair Advantage (in the Mark Donohue sense of the phrase) after all.

Innovation was manifested as Ferrari introduced rear wheel fairings, or sculpted brake ducts. A properly researched and fully legal development, these clearly will not be so fundamental to a car's performance as mass dampers, but add another tiny bit to an already well honed car; however, there are already rumblings of discontent in the paddock. Meanwhile expect to see them on Vauxhall Corsas everywhere soon!

As for nostalgia, the wheel fairings add yet another bit to an F1 car. As they become more and more complex aerodynamically, it’s interesting to look back 50 years at the 1950’s interpretation of aerodynamic where minimising drag was all and downforce was unknown. The streamlined Mercedes, Connaught and Vanwalls were the ultimate in smooth, slippery shapes compared to today’s machines with sticky out bits everywhere. Like it or not, the aero detail on the cars is awesome, the result of the big teams running two wind tunnels on 24 hour shifts, let alone CFD.

The fresh new talent comes at Sauber with both Kubica (21), officially replacing history man Villeneuve, and the 12-year old Sebastian Vettel, their third driver who was actually quickest in Friday practice! BMW seem to be carrying on Sauber's talent spotting tradition - don't forget Raikkonen, we can put Villeneuve down as an aberration. Vettel not only took a record for the youngest ever driver to drive in a Grand Prix weekend - he’s really 19 years 53 days - but also for the quickest ever fine in an F1 career. 9 seconds for pit–lane speeding. For the statisticians, Mike Thackwell was 19 years 182 days when he took the record for youngest ever starter in, unsurprisingly, a Tyrrell (Ken being a legendary talent spotter) and Nico Rosberg tested a Williams BMW aged 17.

Next I feel I’m moving into a parallel universe, as I need to praise a Tilke track. I stand by my comment when I reported on Monaco that a track with contours always offers something of interest. Istanbul truly delivers exciting racing and watching a dialed-in F1 car going round Turn 8 is pure delight.

However, there was a tiny flaw in the weekend - Schuey might have lost the Championship. The sequence of events was a classic of chaos theory e.g. a butterfly flaps its wings in Northamptonshire and a Mercedes engine throws a rod at Hockenheim, except this one wasn't good.

It all started with Schuey making one mistake too many in qualifying. It is a mark of the quality of the circuit that it caught out virtually everybody at some point, sadly our man was caught twice, running wide at Turn 1 on new tyres. They are at their best for one lap only, so it was an achievement to qualify within 0.4s of Massa and 0.04s ahead of Alonso.

One assumes that there was a hope in the Ferrari camp – it could never be anything as blatant as a plan – that Massa would suffer clutch problems again for long enough to let Schuey by (see Indy), and then recover to ward off Alonso. As the lights went out, both red cars made good starts, but Alonso made a real hillclimber’s start – then again Benettons were always good off the line. He had his nose ahead of Schuey on the start/finish straight, but our man is not one to be intimidated and retook the place by assertive but clean driving.

Unfortunately for Renault, Alonso had to slow which caused the following Fisichella to spin. Speed spun in sympathy a bit further down, whilst Heidfeld and Schumacher R had “issues”. Poor Raikkonen drove round the problem on the run off area, and when he thought he was safe got a touch from the rear which cut the left rear. When he rejoined, a full lap destroyed the tyre and did the bodywork no favours. The lap was reminiscent of Gilles Villeneuve’s legendary 1979 Zandvoort 3 wheeler but it highlighted the difference in stiffness and strength between a current and an old F1 car. Despite a tyre ripped to shreds, the McLaren barely tipped during the lap and got back to the pits seemingly intact, whereas Gilles' car fell to pieces. However something was damaged as shortly after rejoining, Raikkonen left the course heavily, destroying each corner except, ironically, the left rear.

Often in these reports, we mention the passing manoeuvres down the field, as overtaking is such a rarity. However, somebody must have shown Herman Tilke a video of a Formula Ford race at Brands before he designed the circuit because he put in enough overtaking places for there to be a wealth of passing; what a shame it took him four circuits to get it right!

The first corner chaos mixed up the field, so some of the overtaking was re-establishing the proper order, but it was still worth watching. Clearly, this is a circuit where a better car/driver combination can make a difference. Out in front front, Massa almost immediately led Schuey by 3 seconds, which Schuey then cut back slightly. It all looked controlled, with Alonso trailing the leader by over 10 seconds.

Then (lap 13) Liuzzi spun at Turn 1, probably the corner which influenced the outcome more than any other. He said that the rear locked up and it later transpired that the traction control had gone loopy, spun the car and shut the engine off. The Toro Morto lay motionless on the outside of the turn and the Safety Car came out. Ross Brawn was in a cleft stick. It would be fruitless to leave the cars out as they were soon due for fuel, they couldn’t pass under course yellows, so there seemed little alternative but to call both in.

It clearly would have been possible to sacrifice poor Massa by waving him through, or maybe even parking him up so that Michael didn’t have to wait, but they didn't and the queue for Shell in the Ferrari pits – nearly as bad as Sainsbury’s on a Saturday – meant that Alonso left the pits ahead of Schuey and remained so to the flag despite the Ferrari being clearly the faster car. So if a superior car/driver combination could win through, what happened here?

Michael lost four seconds when he had an off at Turn 8, but six laps later took a fastest lap. His last dozen or so laps were enthralling as he darted across the track, trying every possible overtaking manoeuvre and generally monstering Alonso whilst being within 0.3 seconds of him. Michael was much quicker in the slower corners, but couldn't close enough in the faster ones to facilitate a pass; was that turn of front wing off in his last pit stop another beat of the butterfly's wings?

They crossed the line almost together but far enough apart for Alonso to gain a two point advantage. The whole was reminiscent of Nigel Mansell’s heroic but ultimately futile struggle (how well that phrase hangs together) against Senna in the final laps of Monaco in 1992. The fact is that monstering does not work against a driver of Alonso's calibre and it's fair but unpalatable to say that over the course of this weekend he was the better driver.

Massa, meanwhile, had a masterful and flawless ride to victory. Up to 11 seconds ahead of Alonso, he demonstrated not only the superiority of the car but also that he is more than just a stopgap second driver. If this is a sign of how he drives out of Michael’s shadow perhaps the prospect of Schuey’s retirement (which according to Bernie is to be announced after Monza...) isn’t so frightening after all. His joy on the podium was infectious and it must be said that two new winners in consecutive races cannot be bad for the sport. Behind this trio Jenson Button continued his improved form in fourth, more than half a minute ahead of de la Rosa’s McLaren.

The next race is, of course, Monza. It’s a race to look forward to, as the 248/Bridgestone combination is clearly the best at the moment and even Pat Symonds admits Renault are struggling now the mass dampers have been lost. Had it not been for a simple qualifying error, and the sportsmanship of the team in not engineering a phony place swap early in the race, there was a 1-2 for the taking in Turkey which would have put Michael only six points behind.

In his heart Alonso knows all this and although he rarely makes a mistake on the track, pressure does get to him - he had his second run-in in as many races with Red Bull's Man Friday Robert Doornbos . The atmosphere and aura give Ferrari at least a second a lap at Monza, not to mention "special" qualifying engines - oh, they can't do that anymore. It looks like the Drivers' Championship will be decided by butterflies. Things are looking better in the Constructors', Fisichella could only manage sixth, so Ferrari have closed to within two points of Renault.

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Watch out for Ferrari-style carbon fibre effect wheel trims at a Halfords near you soon!

'50's aero research concentrated on producing smooth drag-reducing shapes

Now there are a plethora of downforce-generating sticky-out bits

Sebastian Vettel, BMW-Sauber's latest find looks too young even to be in the pits

First beat of the butterfly's wing, Schuey drops it in turn 1 in Qualifying

Schuey demonstrates assertive, but clean driving

Fisi's spin helped Ferrari in the Constructors' Championship

This puncture ultimately caused Kimi to crash out

Liuzzi's Toro Morto caused more trouble for Schuey

Towards the end he closed on Fred, but never got near a true passing manoeuvre

Phil wins for Fazza!

His delight at becoming the 34th pilota to win a GP for the Scuderia was evident

click for FIA lap chart

Meanwhile...

Istanbul Park showed that contours are a Good Thing

pics by Ferrari Media, FIA, Reuters, XPB, LAT, Sutton & unknown