Despite the major challenges involved including completing part of the journey by boat, teams drove their equipment from their European factories to the track for each meeting except the 2020 race.
The nature of the circuit resulted in the inaugural 2005 Turkish Grand Prix weekend seeing exciting on-track action, with many drivers spinning off throughout the weekend due to pushing too hard, particularly at Turn 8 where Juan Pablo Montoya ran wide with two laps to go following a tangle with the Jordan of Tiago Monteiro. This allowed Fernando Alonso to take second place behind Kimi Räikkönen, an event which had a significant bearing on their battle for the World Championship headed towards its culmination.
A year later, Felipe Massa took his first pole position and victory at Tuzla. The Ferraris were 1–2 in early stages of the race, with Massa ahead of Michael Schumacher. Vitantonio Liuzzi's spin brought out the safety car and the Ferraris had to pit on the same lap. Alonso was able to get past Schumacher and the order stayed until the end of the race. Massa repeated in 2007 ahead of his new teammate Räikkönen.
In 2008, the race was held in May. Two-stopping Massa won the race ahead of three-stopping Lewis Hamilton, although Hamilton had passed him during the race.
For 2011, the race was put in doubt because Bernie Ecclestone wanted to double the fees for hosting the race. Ecclestone later confirmed, however, that it would feature on the 2011 calendar, which would expand to twenty races with the addition of the Indian Grand Prix (although the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix meant only nineteen Grands Prix were held).[3]
On 30 July 2011 it was announced that the Turkish Grand Prix would not be on the calendar from 2012 due to a lack of agreement on the annual cost.[4] The race organisers claimed that the hosting fee was too high, while Ecclestone blamed poor promotion for the race's lack of profitability.[5] On 9 January 2013 the government chose not to approve the Formula 1 deal that would have held the race in Tuzla in 2013.
The project, set to cost Turkey around 20 million dollars in total, needed to receive 13 million dollars of state funding.
The government, however, did not give its approval, and the project fell through.[6]
The 2006 Turkish Grand Prix was won by Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who led from start to finish, Fernando Alonso (Renault F1) came in second and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher in third.
The fastest race lap was achieved by Michael Schumacher in 1'28.005.
As part of the podium ceremony after the 2006 race, the winner's trophy was presented by Mehmet Ali Talat, who was introduced to television viewers via the captions as the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a state which is recognised only by Turkey. The FIA announced they would be investigating this incident, as a possible breach of the organisation's political neutrality. The identity of the person who would present the winner's trophy was left to the last minute, leaving the FIA no time to veto the choice. Some commentators feared this incident could jeopardise the future of the Turkish Grand Prix, and possibly also Turkey's round of the World Rally Championship, another FIA-sanctioned series.[7] It was concluded with a 5 million dollar fine,[8] which was later reduced by half.[citation needed]
The winner of the 2007 Turkish Grand Prix was the Brazilian Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who won the race for the second year in a row having qualified in pole position. During the press conference following the race, he commented that "the Istanbul Park was the track where he made his career turn-around, and finally began winning races." He also praised the track as well as the city.
The fastest race lap was achieved by Kimi Räikkönen in 1'27.295.
The winner of the 2008 Turkish Grand Prix was the Brazilian Felipe Massa (Ferrari), who won the race for the third year in a row, also starting in pole position.
The fastest race lap was achieved by Kimi Räikkönen in 1'26.506.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 several originally scheduled races were cancelled. The Turkish Grand Prix was added to the revised calendar in August 2020 and the race weekend was held between 13 and 15 November 2020.[9] The race weekend was marred by a newly resurfaced track, which Pirelli was not aware of and could not test or bring appropriate tyres for, and heavy rainfall exacerbating the already slippery conditions. Lance Stroll of Racing Point took pole position in wet conditions. It was Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, starting from sixth, who took the lead in the middle stages of the race and led to win the race and claim his seventh world title, equaling Michael Schumacher's record.
^Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in qualifying, but received a ten-place grid penalty for exceeding his quota of internal combustion engines.[1]Valtteri Bottas was promoted to pole position in his place.[2]
