Hello Turkey, Goodbye Turkey: Full Grand Prix Report

After the almost narcotic high of Shanghai, the Turkish Grand Prix would have had to be absolutely sensational to even compare. While it was without the drama of China, this weekend’s race was certainly entertaining.

Famous for “Turn 8” – a high speed, triple-apex flat-out left hander, in which the drivers have to endure nearly 5Gs of lateral force, the Turkish Grand Prix is one of the most exciting layouts on the modern calendar. It’s a pity the Turkish people don’t think so however, a drastic fall in attendance means the event will probably be pulled from the line up next year. So this might have been the last Formula One GP at the venue for a few years to come.

With a dominating qualifying performance, the Red Bull’s didn’t even bother to see out the final session, choosing instead to keep a set of optional tyres. Vettel’s time was simply unreachable by the rest of the pack, and team mate Webber backed him up in second, with Rosberg in the Mercedes in fourth.

However the clean side of the grid proved to help launch Rosberg, and he easily leapfrogged Webber into the first corner. That was the last time anybody would get near Vettel, as he drove a flawless race to stay out ahead for almost every single lap of the race.

Behind the young German maestro though was an absolute frenzy of overtaking. Button and Hamilton traded places in a few dramatic wheel-to-wheel moves that must have had Ron Dennis clenching more than his teeth. It’s great to see though that McLaren let’s his racers race, there was nothing even resembling team orders for the two scrappy Brits.

It seemed immediately obvious that the FIA had botched at least one of the DRS zones however, with drivers simply skipping past their prey on the outside at the end of the last back straight. Rosberg was victim to just about anyone behind him and minutes later the same would happen to Schumacher, who needlessly turned in once he had clearly lost the place, damaging his front wing and sending him into the pits for a nosejob. That cost him dearly and he looked panicky for the rest of the race.

Kobayashi, who faced a nightmare starting from the back of the grid, was in 5^th by the first round of pitstops. He fought all day and earned a hard fought few points in 10^th place. The dark horses of the sport, in the black Lotus Renaults, had a bit of scrap when Heidfeld nearly pushed Petrov into the pit lane, but resolved their on-track squabble to finish strongly again, in 7^th and 8^th respectively.

The rest of the race was a fairly straight forward affair, albeit with the teams playing a few mind games with their stops, and some fairly tricky stops where wheel nuts were just not co-operating. Essentially Red Bull had to match a charging Alonso for stops, reacting immediately when he pitted, to keep Vettel and Webber ahead. Button’s race engineer chose a three-stopper for him, which cost him two places in the final stages of the race; four stops was definitely optimal.

The circus that is Formula One moves on to Catalunya, Spain in a fortnight’s time, 20-22 May. In the meantime here are all the standings, from Turkish Grand Prix race results, to Formula 1 driver and team standings.

Race Result: 2011 Turkish Formula 1 Grand Prix

1	1	Sebastian Vettel	RBR-Renault	58	1:30:17.558	1	25
2	2	Mark Webber	RBR-Renault	58	+8.8 secs	2	18
3	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	58	+10.0 secs	5	15
4	3	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+40.2 secs	4	12
5	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	58	+47.5 secs	3	10
6	4	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	58	+59.4 secs	6	8
7	9	Nick Heidfeld	Renault	58	+60.8 secs	9	6
8	10	Vitaly Petrov	Renault	58	+68.1 secs	7	4
9	18	Sebastien Buemi	STR-Ferrari	58	+69.3 secs	16	2
10	16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	58	+78.0 secs	24	1
11	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	58	+79.8 secs	10
12	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	58	+85.4 secs	8
13	14	Adrian Sutil	Force India-Mercedes	57	+1 Lap	12
14	17	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	15
15	11	Rubens Barrichello	Williams-Cosworth	57	+1 Lap	11
16	19	Jaime Alguersuari	STR-Ferrari	57	+1 Lap	17
17	12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Cosworth	57	+1 Lap	14
18	21	Jarno Trulli	Lotus-Renault	57	+1 Lap	19
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Lotus-Renault	56	+2 Laps	18
20	25	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin-Cosworth	56	+2 Laps	23
21	22	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	55	+3 Laps	22
22	23	Vitantonio Liuzzi	HRT-Cosworth	53	+5 Laps	20
Ret	15	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	44	Retired	13
DNS	24	Timo Glock	Virgin-Cosworth	0	Gearbox	21

2011 Formula 1 Driver Standings

1	Sebastian Vettel	German	RBR-Renault	93
2	Lewis Hamilton	British	McLaren-Mercedes	59
3	Mark Webber	Australian	RBR-Renault	55
4	Jenson Button	British	McLaren-Mercedes	46
5	Fernando Alonso	Spanish	Ferrari	41
6	Felipe Massa	Brazilian	Ferrari	24
7	Nick Heidfeld	German	Renault	21
8	Vitaly Petrov	Russian	Renault	21
9	Nico Rosberg	German	Mercedes	20
10	Kamui Kobayashi	Japanese	Sauber-Ferrari	8
11	Michael Schumacher	German	Mercedes	6
12	Sebastien Buemi	Swiss	STR-Ferrari	6
13	Adrian Sutil	German	Force India-Mercedes	2
14	Paul di Resta	British	Force India-Mercedes	2
15	Jaime Alguersuari	Spanish	STR-Ferrari	0
16	Rubens Barrichello	Brazilian	Williams-Cosworth	0
17	Jarno Trulli	Italian	Lotus-Renault	0
18	Sergio Perez	Mexican	Sauber-Ferrari	0
19	Jerome d’Ambrosio	Belgian	Virgin-Cosworth	0
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Finnish	Lotus-Renault	0
21	Timo Glock	German	Virgin-Cosworth	0
22	Pastor Maldonado	Venezuelan	Williams-Cosworth	0
23	Narain Karthikeyan	Indian	HRT-Cosworth	0
24	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Italian	HRT-Cosworth	0

2011 Formula 1 Team Standings

1	RBR-Renault	148
2	McLaren-Mercedes	105
3	Ferrari	65
4	Renault	42
5	Mercedes	26
6	Sauber-Ferrari	8
7	STR-Ferrari	6
8	Force India-Mercedes	4
9	Lotus-Renault	0
10	Williams-Cosworth	0
11	Virgin-Cosworth	0
12	HRT-Cosworth	0