McLaren 1-2 in Turkey, as Red Bull drivers collide

Great battling at the Turkish GP

Lewis Hamilton has won the Turkish GP after Red Bull drivers Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel were involved in a tangle. Rain threatened the race but never arrived.

In qualifying for the Turkish GP Mark Webber maintained Red Bull’s 100% record by taking pole position. However, he was not joined on the first row by his team-mate; instead Lewis Hamilton showed promise for McLaren by qualifying just a tenth off Webber’s time. Vettel was hampered by a problem on his car, but still qualified third and Jenson Button completed the top four.

At the start of the race Vettel managed to jump Hamilton into turn one, however Hamilton soon got the place back. Michael Schumacher also had a great start and made a brave move around the outside, managing to jump Button who quickly took the place back. There was some contact further back as both Nico Hulkenberg and Sebastian Buemi had to pit. Felipe Massa and Robert Kubica had a coming together as they fought for position; however, neither cars were damaged and both continued. At the front the top four started to break away with Hamilton sticking close behind Webber and Button behind Vettel. However, Hamilton was unable to get past Webber despite having a straight line advantage due to the ‘F-duct’.

Rubens Barrichello, who’d lost out at the start, was the first to stop for tyres on lap 11. On lap 15 Vettel pitted leaving Button clear air to try and put in some fast laps. On lap 16 both Webber and Hamilton pitted at the same time. Hamilton had a problem with his pitstop, meaning when he came out he was still behind. When Button pitted he came out still in P4. The top three drivers remained close, with a gap of 1.3s separating them in the laps after their pit stops.

There threatened to be a twist when radars started to predict rain; however, it never appeared in a way that would affect the race, despite many drivers being told over their team radios that it may be raining enough for intermediate tyres. Further down the field Jarno Trulli pulled over to the side of the track, and on the same lap Heikki Kovalainen was wheeled back into the garage as the Lotus team suffered a double hydraulic failure.

The main drama of the race came in lap 40 when Vettel got a tow from his Red Bull team-mate and moved to overtake him. Unfortunately they managed to make contact which sent Vettel spinning and Webber off the track. Vettel’s race was clearly over; however, Webber was able to continue but lost the lead to the two McLarens who were in close pursuit. He had to pit for a new nose, but had built up enough of a gap back to fourth placed man Schumacher to retain fifth place. Afterwards it initially appeared that Vettel had turned in to Webber while over-taking, while Red Bull revealed after the race that Webber had been in ‘save-fuel’ mode when the incident happened, allowing Vettel to get a run on him. Whoever’s fault it was, it was not what Red Bull wanted to see – especially as it lost them vital points in both championships.

The two McLarens soon had a close battle when Button overtook Hamilton, but Hamilton took the place back and managed to avoid a repeat of the Red Bull incident, despite the pair of them banging wheels. Ferrari, who this weekend were celebrating their 800^th GP, had a quiet race. Towards the end of the race Massa was battling with Kubica while Fernando Alonso fought with Vitaly Petrov. After the race Alonso summed it up by saying that Ferrari didn’t want to be battling Renault for eight place, they wanted to be fighting with Red Bull and McLaren for podiums so hoped to make a step forward for the next race. Hamilton led home the McLaren 1-2, with Webber also on the podium. Schumacher finished a season best fourth, with Rosberg, Kubica, Massa, Alonso, Sutil and Kobayashi rounding out the points scoring positions. Sauber managed to pick up their first point and get both cars to the finish. Those who DNF the race were Trulli, Kovalainen, Vettel, Senna and Chandhok.

F1 continues in two weeks time, making its return to Montreal for the Canadian GP. Both championship battles are still incredibly tight at the top so it promises to be exciting.

Posted by Hannah Hough - Follow her on twitter @hannahhou.

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• the race was amazing
  by matty
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