Team play in turkey for Hamilton and Button
The Turkish GP promised some close racing after qualifying with a McLaren managing to split the Red Bull’s on the grid and the shows in practice but it was the Red Bulls that seemingly had everything in the bag, though the McLarens were by no means done when the Red Bulls got together. It was Lewis Hamilton’s first win of the season as Button continues to pick up solid points as did Mark Webber after the incident which saw him pit for a new front wing and still hold out for third ahead of Michael Schumacher.
The 1-2 for McLaren seemed to mask something between the drivers after the race, Button’s move for the lead 11 laps from the end showed that he’s not going to let Hamilton get away with anything though the somewhat lacklustre defence of that position a few corners later seemed a little odd. I wonder what team orders are actually in force behind the scenes. Red Bull had the opposite problem as Vettel and Webber collided resulting in Vettel’s exit from the race and Webber having to pit for a new front wing. Vettel seemed to blame Webber for the incident but from the onboard camera it seemed like the opposite was true as Vettel turns into Mark Webber, some say that there is now civil war in the team but there have been many incidents like this in the past that haven’t destroyed relationships.
For the other teams it was a hard fought race, Fernando Alonso had a hard time recovering from his qualifying result of 12th and the Mercedes underlined that they are the third fastest team at the moment. Renault also continue their rise and getting solidly into the top 10 (until Alonso barged past Petrov and put him out that was). Williams will be disappointed with another poor showing and have some work to do to get back on terms. Force India again picked up some points with Kobayashi finishing for Sauber in 10th place for the last point, Peter Sauber will be pleased no doubt with a double finish and a point.
Lotus continue their slide as Virgin proved to be the strongest of the new teams with a double finish though the Hispania cars did show an improvement in their pace it wasn’t to be on race day with only Chandhok finishing.
The Turkish GP certainly woke some F1 doubters up and there was some very happy people going home from it, Sebastien Vettel would not have been one of them but Mark Webber may well have been along with Jenson Button.
Full Result:
1 HAMILTON McLaren 1hr28m47.6
2 BUTTON McLaren +2.6s
3 WEBBER Red Bull +24.2s
4 SCHUMACHER Mercedes +31.1s
5 ROSBERG Mercedes +32.2s
6 KUBICA Renault +32.8s
7 MASSA Ferrari +36.6s
8 ALONSO Ferrari +46.5s
9 SUTIL Force India +49.0s
10 KOBAYASHI Sauber +65.6s
11 DE LA ROSA Sauber +65.9s
12 ALGUERSUARI Toro Rosso +67.8s
13 LIUZZI Force India +1 lap
14 BARRICHELLO Williams +1 lap
15 PETROV Renault +1 lap
16 BUEMI Toro Rosso +1 lap
17 HULKENBERG Williams +1 lap
18 GLOCK Virgin +3 laps
19 DI GRASSI Virgin +3 laps
20 CHANDHOK HRT +6 laps
R SENNA HRT +12 laps
R VETTEL Red Bull +19 laps
R KOVALAINEN Lotus +25 laps
R TRULLI Lotus +26 laps
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