15/05/2008 10:30

Turkey - McLaren can take comfort from a Turkish Grand Prix performance that left it closer to rival Ferrari than it has been since last season.

Now, if only some good luck would follow.

Since Lewis Hamilton's season-opening victory at the Australian Grand Prix, the British team has experienced an array of problems - technical and driver-related - that sent its Formula One championship hunt veering off course.

Hamilton was forced into a three-stop strategy at the Istanbul Speed Park when his tires were compromised due to his distinct driving style. The British driver overtook champion Felipe Massa on the 24th lap, but couldn't make up the difference in the end.

Hamilton, who last year became F1's most celebrated rookie, called it his best performance to date.

"The real positive thing that comes from here is that we could clearly have beaten Ferrari," McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh said.

Even though Massa won for the third straight year in Turkey to earn Ferrari's fourth victory in five races - and sixth in seven going back to last season - the Italians are wary of their main rival.

'Very aggressive'

Especially with Monaco next on the schedule, where McLaren has traditionally performed well.

"I think that as I have always said, the championship is very, very long, it's always tough and I'm expecting for them still to be very aggressive," Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said.

Ferrari's reliability since a one-point weekend at Melbourne has been the difference. Defending champion Kimi Raikkonen leads the overall standings with 35 points - seven better than Hamilton and Massa. The team holds a 19-point advantage over BMW Sauber in the constructors' standings.

The rookie errors that Hamilton avoided last year in reaching nine straight podiums to begin his career seem to have been catching up with since Melbourne.

A qualifying penalty and poor pit work cost the 23-year-old at Malaysia. A stall at the start was the problem in a 13th-place finish at Bahrain - his worst showing in 24 career races.

But Hamilton set the second fastest lap at Istanbul and lost by less than four seconds, his pit stops timing at nearly seven seconds. At least it wasn't the team's fault this time.

Second fastest

"I really think we have closed the gap to Ferrari," Hamilton said. "I am so excited about the next race in Monaco and just can't wait."

Teammate Heikki Kovalainen returned from a violent crash at Barcelona to qualify second fastest at Istanbul only for a tire puncture in the messy start to send him into the pits and return him to the track in last place. The Finn, whose championship hopes are narrowing by the race, finished 12th.

McLaren believes Kovalainen could just as easily have been first.

"If Heikki had not made that stop, he would have run longer than Felipe at the first stop and if he could have been close to Massa, which I think he could have been, he would have been able to take him at the first stop," an optimistic Whitmarsh said.

If last year is anything to go by, Monte Carlo's boutique-lined streets will be kind to McLaren.

In 2007, Ferrari scored wins at three of the first four races before McLaren started a three-race win streak at Monaco. Michael Schumacher's 2001 win is Ferrari's only one at the principality this century.

"At Monte Carlo and also Canada we need to react because last year was very difficult for us," said Domenicali, whose team spent extra time in the offseason readying for Monaco.

'Key point'

Domenicali is unconcerned - for the moment - about whether his two drivers will clash in their chase for the F1 title, as happened last year at Mclaren with Hamilton and former teammate Fernando Alonso.

"The most important thing is the team's interests and this is the key point for us," Domenicali said. "At the moment there are no changes in our procedure but we will see later on during the season."

He expects BMW Sauber and Renault to provide a challenge at the next race.

Alonso, who finished sixth at Turkey for Renault, still sees Monaco as a two-car show even though the French team won there twice in the past years.

"That's what we always think when going to Monaco or at least we all think Monaco is so different that things will change, but in the end it's always a McLaren or a Ferrari winning or Renault like in 2006," the two-time world champion said.