A satisfied Lewis Hamilton cashed in on an early Bank Holiday present from Milton Keynes, as he led team-mate Jenson Button home to a McLaren Mercedes 1-2 at today’s Turkish Grand Prix. The two British drivers took full advantage of Red Bull’s latest and most essential cock-up, to establish a lead in the constructor’s championship.
As in Barcelona and Monte Carlo, Red Bull Racing looked to have the race in the bag, when on Lap 41, their drivers entered suicide mode, is dismantling fashion. Leading from pole, Australian Mark Webber was leading throughout, but was coming under intense pressure from his team-mate, Sebastian Vettel, with Hamilton and Button keeping an ominous watching brief throughout. In a brief rain shower, Webber appeared to miss a gear on the backstraight, approaching Turn 12, allowing Vettel alongside and the chance to take the lead. What happened next was quite unbelievable, as Vettel turned right, caught Webber and the pair collided down the escape road. Damage to the rear of Vettel’s car, left the German spinning into retirement, whilst Mark was forced in for front wing repairs, gamely battling onto a podium finish, and an extension of his championship lead. However, team boss Christian Horner must be thinking, what he does now, with the relationship between his two drivers surely well and truly destroyed beyond repair.
So, as in Australia and China, McLaren benefited from Red Bull’s mistakes, with a fair racing battle themselves soon after the ‘Bull’ nightmare. Button outbraked Hamilton into Turn 12 with ten laps to go and gained the lead. Hamilton quickly dived back underneath the world champion, slid up the inside into Turn 1, and despite a brushing of tyres, won back his hard-fought advantage, which he kept to the chequered flag. Although the team had to save critical fuel levels in the closing stages, Hamilton held on to claim his first win since Singapore in September 2009, and pushes him up to 3rd in the championship standings.
Michael Schumacher’s rehabilitation in 2010 continued, with a strong run to 4th place in his Mercedes, equalling his best result of the season. Though he never looked like challenging the podium runners, Michael’s pace throughout was consistent, and he beat Nico Rosberg again, as the seven-time world champion starts to earn the upper hand in the team. Rosberg was 5th, despite tyre concerns, holding off a long race challenge from Robert Kubica, who continued his strong run of points finishes, 6th in the Renault.
It may have been their 800th Formula One event this weekend, but it was a miserable party for Ferrari. Having started a dismal 12th on the grid, Fernando Alonso could only manage 8th, in a car that looked evil to drive all event. He needed a forceful move on Renault rookie Vitaly Petrov to even get him 8th spot, which left the Russian with a puncture and a cruel drop out of the points, after a fine weekend. Former three-time winner at the Istanbul Park, Felipe Massa could only muster 7th place and the Scuderia must be praying for a massive change in fortunes from their new development package in Canada and Valencia, or they face being written out of the championship battle before halfway. There were more points for the consistent Adrian Sutil, with 9th and Japan’s finest; Kamur Kobayashi earned Sauber’s first point of a depressing season so far, winding up 10th. Team-mate Pedro de la Rosa finished directly behind Kobayashi, marking the team’s first double-car finish of the campaign.
The first golden rule of Grand Prix racing is not to run into your team-mate. Today, Red Bull cracked under the pressure, and forgot this rule, leaving them red-faced and McLaren celebrating an unexpected bonus as F1 heads back to Montreal in a fortnight’s time, after a one-year sabbatical. What will happen next in this season of twists and turns remains to be seen….
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