Lewis joy but unlucky Heikki thrills his team

McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh believes Kovalainen would have taken a maiden win had his car not been nudged by the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen in a hectic charge to the first corner after the start - a sprint which saw Giancarlo Fisichella's Force India run over the back of Kazuki Nakajima's Williams and end both their races.

Kovalainen, who had qualified ahead of Hamilton on the grid, was forced to pit early to replace a punctured rear tyre and that ruined his challenge for victory.

With the Finn out of the way, Hamilton went on to finish runner-up to Raikkonen's team-mate Felipe Massa, whowon from pole position for the third successive race at the Istanbul Park circuit.

Hamilton's performance was all the more notable because he was the only driver to make three planned pit stops, a strategy forced on the Briton because of concerns that his aggressive driving style might cause a repeat of the 200mph blowout he suffered in the same Grand Prix last year.

But Whitmarsh believes that Kovalainen, on two stops, would have had the measure of Massa had he not been in collision with Raikkonen.

Whitmarsh said: "Heikki would have run longer than Felipe to his 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. Thereafter, the race would have played out differently.

"I've never known Heikki as disappointed as this. He really felt he could win this race and as the race panned out I think he knows he could have won it,and it eluded him. And that is disappointing. But he will win races this year - and he really deserves to. He's an extraordinary chap."

Hamilton took the lead on lap 24 with a daring dive down the inside of Massa but he was always going to struggle to win with Brazilian Massa on a better two-stop strategy.

The 23-year-old insisted: "That was the best race I've ever done." "It doesn't matter if you win or not, it's whether you drive 100 per cent, whether you extract the most out of the car.

"It's when you end the race and you ask yourself and the team, 'could we have done a better job?'

"I strongly feel we couldn't have done a better job here. The pit-stops were almost perfect, if not perfect. My inlaps, my out-laps, they were stronger than ever, and I just feel my race pace is getting stronger with each race.

"I had a strong showing in Barcelona a fortnight ago, and it was even stronger here. And we overtook a Ferrari!"

Defending the three-pit strategy, Hamilton added: "There's nothing worse than having a tyre blow out at 200mph, so we tried to avoid that. It was all down to safety. The team was worried. Obviously, we didn't want to have another incident like the last race here. But it put us on the back foot. Without a three-stop we might have had a better chance of winning." Massa's victory, the seventh of his career, and Hamilton's second place means the two rivals are level on 28 points, closing the gap on Raikkonen to just seven after the Finn finished third.

The BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were fourth and fifth, with Renault's Fernando Alonso sixth, the Red Bull of Mark Webber seventh, and Williams' Nico Rosberg crossing the race in eighth place.

Red Bull's David Coulthard remains without a championship point after he finished ninth, whilst Jenson Button was 11th, three places ahead of Honda team-mate Rubens Barrichello on the occasion of the Brazilian veteran's record-breaking 257th Grand Prix.