Turkish GP 2011

And when you just think it can’t get any more exciting and hectic, we get Turkish GP! Concerning sole victory, we were back to Australian/Malaysian GPs style with Sebastian Vettel cruising from the start to the finish line with no particular problem (the only one was to lap fighting Sutil and Perez on the penultimate lap), but what a rush it was behind his back!

I wanted to bring myself some more tea at one point of the race and was literally begging the drivers to stop the madness on the track and come back to the 2010 processions for a second, but all for nothing – I left the TV for 2 minutes and it took me another 10 after I came back to get what had actually happened as the order had already changed drastically. For those of you who are acquainted with the classic writing of Jane Austen, as Pride and Prejudice Mrs Bennet would put it: You have no compassion on my poor nerves!

Sebastian Vettel and his team did a great job if we consider the fact that the German crashed in the early stages of FP1 on Friday and therefore, missed whole FP2. Lack of practice and data didn’t stop the reigning world champion from snatching pole on Saturday and transferring it into yet another 25 points today afternoon.

Vettel maintained his position at the start, unlike his teammate who wasn’t fast enough of the line and was overtaken by starting from P3 Nico Rosberg. Lewis Hamilton, starting from the second row, saw an opportunity, but his effort to follow Rosberg and overtake Webber on the outside did not pay off as he went wide and lost his P4 to Fernando Alonso (who seems to have P5 subscription this year as he keeps on starting from this position) and even Jenson Button, who was P6 on the grid. Behind, Petrov lost place to Michael Schumacher, but decided not to yield so easily. An overtaking move by the Russian performed not much later, ended up with a small collision between the Renault driver and the 7-time world champion. It compromised the German’s race as he was forced to duck to the pit lane straight away. It was one of those races, when one has to ask a question whether Schumacher’s decision to come back from his retirement was right. Despite efforts, the Mercedes’ driver finished the race outside of points and was overtaken by nearly anybody who happened to be around, including his former teammates – Felipe Massa and Rubens Barrichello.

Soon after the start Mark Webber retook his second place when he passed Rosberg with the use of DRS. Fernando Alonso followed his footsteps two laps later. The now leading trio (Vettel, Webber, Alonso) turned out to be the podium finishers, but they still had their share of fight to perform, before they could drink the champagne.* Behind them, Hamilton regained one lost position passing Button, but, as his tyres were nearly gone, he lost it before he could even think Gotcha! not even mentioning catching Rosberg (now in P4). Massa, who started from P10 and (having not set a time in Q3) was free to choose any tyres he wanted for the start was making good progress and he soon joined the McLaren drivers’ battle. He managed to get past Lewis Hamilton and the two drivers went both straight into the pit lane on lap 9. With McLaren crew being faster and a bit unsafe release from the Ferrari team, the Brazilian’s efforts to get in front of Hamilton came to nothing as the Brit rejoined the track in front. As expected, the tyres didn’t last long and it took only around 10 laps before we saw the first dose of pit stops. Jenson Button, whose crew chose to pit 3 times instead of the preferred 4-stop strategy, delayed his first pit stop and was now in the lead.

On lap 12, Vitaly Petrov decided to attack his teammate and nearly repeated what the Red Bull drivers did in Istanbul last year as he was close to crash with Nick Heidfeld. Enraged Heidfeld, pushed out of the track, found time and energy to show his Russian friend some friendly fist gestures. Meanwhile, at the front, Hamilton managed to overtake Rosberg, who now found himself between the 2008 world champion and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was doing his best to get in front of the Mercedes, but couldn’t as Rosberg (now right behind Hamilton) was also able to use his moveable rear wing.

Laps 20–24 saw an entertaining battle between Rosberg-Massa-Button trio. Massa finally overtook Rosberg only to lose the position a few seconds later. However, he didn’t give up and made another, this time effective, attempt. Button didn’t waste time and swallowed the German too. Soon he was in front of Massa as well. On lap 30 Fernando Alonso finally caught Webber and passed him on turn 12 with a little help of DRS.

By the third turn of pit stops it was clear that Vettel would win with Alonso and Webber fighting for the remaining two podium places. Massa, who looked as if he could have settled for a 5–7 place was delayed in his pit stop, losing some valuable seconds, which cost him points finish at the end. Lewis Hamilton was another driver who was unlucky in the pits. The McLaren team decided to split their strategies: Lewis Hamilton, who was forced to pit as early as lap 9, switched to 4-stop strategy, which proved to be a better choice. Jenson Button, known for his silky smooth style, was supposed to look after his tyres better and gain time pitting 3 times only. The British team copied Ferrari’s strategy from China with one stop less than the competitors and just like in the case of Scuderia 3 weeks ago – they lost it there. Jenson Button became a sitting duck in the closing stages of the race, trying to finish the race anywhere he could and was passed by, amongst others, Nico Rosberg. The most significant sign of a bad strategy choice was the fact that Button was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, who not only had one stop more, but it also was a faulty stop which cost the 2008 world champion some time.

With Button’s worn tyres, Hamilton’s and Massa’s longer pit stops, Brazilian’s excursion outside of the track and Vettel out of reach, Webber and Alonso were left to fight for the second place between themselves. Webber stopped for the last time one lap earlier (lap 45) and was still in P3 when Alonso rejoined the track 12 laps from the chequered flag. Having the advantage of DRS, the Aussie didn’t have to wait long and the podium was established 6 laps from the end with Webber passing Alonso for P2.

Worth noticing is the performance of Kamui Kobayashi. The Japanese didn’t set a time in the qualifying session, but was nevertheless allowed to start in the race. From the back of the grid, the Sauber’s driver made it to P10 and snatched 1 point for his team, being even P5 at the beginning of the race when many drivers opted to pit early and he was left out longer on his hard slicks. Timo Glock didn’t start in the race at all as he got stuck in his garage with gear box problems. Williams had yet another miserable race with neither of the drivers scoring points. Rubens Barrichello finished 15th and Pastor Maldonado was so eager to get to the points that he earned a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Mercedes seem to have made some progress with Nico Rosberg delivering a great result (P3) on Saturday. Ferrari, who is another team in need of a significant step forward, was still almost a second away from pole in qualifying but the gap to McLaren was already smaller (Alonso split the two British drivers on the grid) . Their race pace looked very promising too: Fernando Alonso could go as fast as the Red Bulls throughout all the race, and Felipe Massa, if not for a bad pit stop, could have finished the race in a much better position than he started it.

Despite the Pirelli tyres providing for lots of action and (questioned by some as artificial) DRS enabling drivers to overtake more than ever before, one remains unchanged: pole position on Saturday is the best way to secure the victory on Sunday.

After 4 GPs Sebastian Vettel is still untouchable in the WDC lead with 93 points, followed by Lewis Hamilton (59), Mark Webber (55), Jenson Button (46) and Fernando Alonso (41). Like Vettel, his team is reigning in the WCC having gathered as much as 148 points with McLaren on 105 and Ferrari further behind on 65.

Full results here.

* I've just learnt that (due to age limit) Vettel was not allowed to drink champagne leaving more for Webber and Alonso. He really is the youngest world champion in history!