FERRARI'S four successive victories, including Felipe Massa's win at Sunday?s Turkish race, demonstrate their significant advantage on the fast, flowing tracks which have hosted the most recent grands prix.

However, past form for the next two Formula One races, at Monaco and in Canada, indicates that McLaren will have the advantage over Ferrari.

If that form is maintained, the drivers' and constructors' championship will remain wide open.

In Monaco last year, Fernando Alonso headed a McLaren 1-2, chased home by Lewis Hamilton, who was convinced he could have won.

This year, I am expecting Hamilton to win.

After all, the drive of the Turkish race came from the McLaren driver, who overcame adversity after tyre issues forced him to gamble on a three pit-stop strategy.

The Istanbul Otodrom is one of the few tracks where tyre strategy, rather than the risk of running out of fuel, governs the timing of the pit stops.

The infamous Turn 8, the long left-hand bend taken at close to 300kmh, places huge loads on the tyres, particularly the right-front one. On that tyre, side forces of up to 4.5 times gravity threaten to tear the tread off the side wall.

Last year, that happened to Hamilton. On Lap 43, 25 laps after his first pit stop, the tread tore from the tyre.

Fortunately, he was able to maintain control but the stop dropped him from third to fifth place.

The problem seems specific to Hamilton's aggressive driving style, which demands that the suspension is set to give more "bite" to the steering. His speed thus comes at the cost of added load on the tyres. Interestingly, teammate Heikki Kovalainen, driving the same car, does not suffer the same tyre problems.

Before Sunday's 58-lap race, the Bridgestone engineers told Hamilton they were unable to guarantee their tyres for the required 20 laps for a two-stop strategy.

The McLaren driver was therefore forced to gamble on running with three pit stops, 16 laps apart, while everyone else, including the Ferraris of Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, stopped just twice.

In order to make up the time for that extra stop, Hamilton had to drive 58 low-fuel qualifying laps during the course of the race. Not only did he do that, he also pulled off a brilliant move to pass Massa for the lead.

Then, having made his extra stop in the closing stages of the race, he held off world champion Raikkonen to claim second place. It was probably the best drive of Hamilton?s career.

The Briton's performance in Istanbul bodes well for the next few weeks as he seeks to retain his Canadian Grand Prix title, which was his maiden win last year.

The title chase in the 2008 Formula One World Championship is far from over yet.

This article was published in The Straits Times on May 15, 2008.