Long day for Alonso, who settled for a distant sixth. (LAT photo) » More Photos

Heidfeld’s feelings were probably echoed by Renault’s Fernando Alonso, who could only manage sixth place, although he did at least beat the similarly powered Mark Webber, who has now scored points in four consecutive races for the first time in three years. The Australian has been debunking the myth that he is a strong qualifier and nothing else, featuring in the top eight in the race results and the fastest lap column in Bahrain, Spain and Turkey, which is actually better than his qualifying form in that period.

Former Williams teammate Nico Rosberg took the final point, keeping his team in fourth place in the constructors’ championship, with Williams having scored in 4 of the 5 races so far. Rosberg is the only driver this season to make up positions at every race start, and he kept up that record by picking off David Coulthard and Jarno Trulli on the first lap.

Coulthard ended up ninth for the second time this year (after Malaysia). DC made it through to Q3 for the first time since Australia so it was an opportunity missed for the 37-year-old Scot, and speaking of Australia, that was the last time Jarno Trulli didn’t score points until this weekend – both Trulli and Toyota teammate Timo Glock suffered very poor getaways on Sunday, echoing the team’s Achilles heel from 2007.

Honda’s Jenson Button was 11th on Sunday, curiously setting his personal fastest lap of the race on the last lap for the third time in the last four races, on a weekend in which Honda scored their worst qualifying of the year. Most of the attention within the team was focused on Rubens Barrichello, who celebrated surpassing Riccardo Patrese’s all-time starts record of 256. Patrese, in attendance to commentate for Italian television, joined Rubens in a Sunday morning photocall to celebrate.

Heikki Kovalainen will leave Istanbul wondering what might have been. After taking his first career front row start, light contact with Kimi Raikkonen at turn 1 deflated his chances as quickly as his left-rear tire. He never really recovered from it, and his fastest race lap was 1.1sec slower than Hamilton as he limped home a dejected 12th.

At the tail end, Sebastian Vettel could celebrate finishing a race for the first time this season, having been out on lap 1 three times in the first four races. It was the last appearance for the Toro Rosso STR2B chassis, as the new car comes online at Monaco, but one chassis we won’t be seeing again is the Super Aguri SA08.

Sadly, after just 39 races, Istanbul saw the death knell of a team born from Honda. The last team to withdraw from Formula 1 in midseason were Arrows in 2002, so it is ironic that Super Aguri began life using a modified Arrows A23 chassis that the team had been using when they ceased operating six years ago. Aguri scored two points finishes with Takuma Sato, including that unforgettable pass around the outside of reigning world champion Fernando Alonso on the way to sixth place in last year’s Canadian Grand Prix.

For both Sato and Davidson, the future is uncertain. Sato is only 4 starts behind Ukyo Katayama’s record of 94 starts by a Japanese driver, while Anthony Davidson currently owns the unwanted record of most starts by any driver in history without ever scoring a top ten finish (24). Ironically, he started 11th on the grid in Istanbul last year, which tied his career best. Aguri Suzuki’s plucky outfit may not be missed within the cold, harsh environment of the Formula 1 paddock, but they gained a lot of fans during their short time in the sport.