Turkish GP: Button Puts His Name In History Books

Sunday 7th June 2009

After his pass on Sebastian Vettel on the opening lap, the Turkish GP may have been a boring race for Jenson Button, but it's one that puts his name in F1's history books.

Button, who overtook Vettel on the exit of Turn 9/10 when the pole-sitter ran wide, strolled to victory at the Istanbul Otodrom, handing him his sixth grand prix win of the season.

And that put Button in F1's history books where he joins the names of Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher in having won six of the first seven races.

Vettel, meanwhile, also lost out to team-mate Mark Webber after opting for a three-stop strategy. But his inability to overtake Button for the lead cost him dearly and he eventually finished 0.7s behind Webber. Jarno Trulli claimed fourth place ahead of Nico Rosberg, whose flying start, saw him leap up from ninth place.

Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica and Timo Glock completed the top eight.

Race Report
As the cars lined up on the sun-drenched grid, the track temperature was up to 49C with an ambient temperature of 32C (up from 28C on Saturday). Though the inside line into Turn 1 had been swept, Jenson Button and Mark Webber were taking no chances and angled their cars towards the outside as they lined up in P2 and P4.

Only Fernando Alonso elected to use the green-walled (option) soft tyres in the opening stint.

When the red lights went out, the potential threat from Rubens Barrichello in P3 evaporated. His Brawn GP bogged down and the rest of the field flooded past him into Turn 1.

Jarno Trulli was very racy off the line and was dicing with Mark Webber throughout the lap. He got past him into Turn 1 but Webber had him back before the end of the opening lap.

Felipe Massa cruised up the inside to get ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen into Turn 1, but lost out to a combative Nico Rosberg later in the lap.

Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso were also dicing on the opening lap. Alonso got past, but Raikkonen's front wing tagged the back of Alonso's tyre in the final chicane giving him aero problems from Lap 1.

However the major mistake happened at the front. Polesitter Sebastian Vettel exited Turns 9/10 and ran wide past the run-off and briefly onto the grass on the left. He didn't lose too much speed but Button was past in an instant and through into P1.

So the order at the end of a hectic opening lap was: 1.Button, 2.Vettel, 3.Webber, 4.Trulli, 5.Rosberg, 6.Massa, 7.Alonso, 8.Kubica, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Nakajima, 11.Kovalainen, 12.Barrichello.

Jenson Button set about opening a gap to Vettel at about 0.3 to 0.4 of a second a lap with a series of fastest laps. By Lap 6 he had a 2.9 lead. Meanwhile his team-mate was stuck behind Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren and the Brazilian was showing no patience in his fight back to the front. On Lap 6 he was looking down the inside of the Finn into Turn 9 but thought better of it. On Lap 7 he overtook the McLaren through the final chicane, but then Kovalainen nailed him going back into Turn 1.

On Lap 8 he decided he was going to try and get past without a sufficient gap and barged into the side of Kovalainen in Turn 9. The Brawn came off worst and immediately relegated him from 12th to 17th. Barrichello hadn't stopped there, though, and five laps later he tried to get through an even smaller gap with the Force India of Adrian Sutil. Coming into the final corner he launched his Brawn the way he had done so successfully (and aggressively) in Australia and lost his front wing endplate.

The resulting damage meant that he had to pit ahead of schedule. He had earlier reported that his Brawn GP car had lost 7th gear, a result, Ross Brawn revealed, of over-torquing the clutch at the start. From that point on Rubens was reduced to the role of unhappy spectator in the GP.

By Lap 12 Button had reduced the Fastest Lap to 1:27.799 and opened up a 5.2 gap to Vettel. The Red Bull driver had to stop two laps earlier than Brawn, so Button was always going to have an edge. When Vettel stopped on Lap 15 Button's lead was around six seconds, but the Red Bull was stopped for just 6.2 seconds indicating a three-stop race.

Vettel was followed in by Trulli on Lap 16, Button and Massa on Lap 17 and Webber and Rosberg on Lap 18. All were on two-stoppers. When the stops had panned out on Lap 21, the order was: 1.Button, 2.Vettel, 3.Webber, 4.Nakajima (not stopped), 5.Rosberg - now ahead of Trulli, 6.Trulli, 7.Glock (not stopped), 8.Massa, 9.Heidfeld (not stopped), 10.Kubica, 11.Alonso.

Fuelled much lighter than the Brawn, Vettel closed in quickly and brought Jenson's 3.9 second lead down to 3.7, 3.2, 2.4 and then 1.6 in subsequent laps. To make his strategy work he needed to get past Button quickly, but although Jenson's lead was down to 0.2 by Lap 25, the Red Bull could not follow in the dirty air and had to stay behind till Vettel's second pit-stop on Lap 28.

Team-mate Mark Webber was on a two-stop strategy and could run at the maximum of the car's potential and so Vettel was now in danger of staying behind Webber after his third and final pit-stop. Though Button had been closed down by Vettel, he was still running faster than Mark Webber and had the race totally under control.

Lewis Hamilton had been fuelled up from 16th on the grid and was losing a lot of time in the four-apex Turn 8. As his 32-lap fuel load ran out he was able to set the fastest final sector time which would only be beaten by another KERS car, Kimi Raikkonen, in the closing stages of the race.

Hamilton enjoyed a bit of wheel-to-wheel action with Nelson Piquet after he emerged from his pit-stop (which Piquet won), but neither Mclaren looked like they were going to get anywhere near the points and didn't.

On Lap 35 the positions were: 1.Button, 18.3 seconds in front of... 2.Webber, who had 8.5 seconds on... 3.Vettel who was 5.9 seconds in front of... 4.Rosberg, who was just 3.5 seconds in front of...5.Trulli, who had 6.9 seconds on 6.Massa. 7, Nakajima, 8.Kubica, 9.Alonso, 10.Glock, 11.Raikkonen.

When the second pit-stops wound out between Laps 40 and 43, Rosberg found himself pitting three laps before Trulli and in that time Trulli was able to take back the 4th place he'd lost early on. The three-stopping Vettel didn't need to come in till Lap 48, but he wasn't able to close the gap and get in front of Webber and crossed the line on Lap 49, 3.7 seconds down in third place. And started to charge.

Despite admonishments from the Red Bull engineers to conserve the car and that "Mark is faster", Vettel was able to set the fastest first sector of the race and closed the gap down to 1.2 seconds, proving all that to be just coded talk for "please slow down and don't try and overtake". The gap came down to 1.6 seconds on Lap 55 but on a similar fuel load the only chance of P2 was if Webber made a mistake, which he didn't.

The only chance of a battle in the closing stages was between Robert Kubica in 7th and Timo Glock in 8th. Glock had run as high as 6th before a very late final stop that saw him hang on to a points paying position. Though he was 0.6 behind Kubica on Lap 49, nine laps later he was in exactly the same position.

Jenson Button cooled off his car in the final laps and did some grandiose swerves down the finishing straight towards his 6th win in the first 7 races; matching Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher. Pole position had never been denied a win in Turkey, but Button and Red Bull's own strategy had seen to that.

The Ferrari's promise from Saturday practice faded away in the race and it was more of the familiar Brawn, Red Bull, Toyota dominance. The team to really step up a gear in Istanbul was Williams who would have had two cars in the points had Kazuki Nakajima not endured a disastrous final pit-stop where a front left wheel trim wouldn't go back on, relegating the Japanese driver to 11th place.

With Rubens Barrichello retiring his Brawn on Lap 48 - their first of the season - Button's win gives him a 26 points lead in the driver's championship and finally one that best reflects his driving superiority this season.

FH

Results
01 J. Button Brawn GP 1:26:24.848
02 M. Webber Red Bull + 6.714
03 S. Vettel Red Bull + 7.461
04 J. Trulli Toyota + 27.843
05 N. Rosberg Williams + 31.539
06 F. Massa Ferrari + 39.996
07 R. Kubica BMW + 46.247
08 T. Glock Toyota + 46.959
09 K. Räikkönen Ferrari + 50.246
10 F. Alonso Renault + 1:02.420
11 N. Heidfeld BMW + 1:04.327
12 K. Nakajima Williams + 1:06.376
13 L. Hamilton McLaren + 1:20.454
14 H. Kovalainen McLaren + 1 laps
15 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
16 N. Piquet jr. Renault + 1 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 + 1 laps
18 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso + 1 laps
Did not finish
19 R. Barrichello Brawn GP + 11 laps
20 G. Fisichella Force India F1 + 54 laps

Source : Planet F1

TURKISH GP 2009 RESULTS

To be honest, I was expecting a more interesting race than what transpired. Three reasons why I didn't enjoy the race at all.

Number one - which is obvious to people who know me - because McLaren and specifically Lewis Hamilton had no chance at all of scoring any points. And I was right about that, plus the fact that the TV director hardly focused on Lewis or Heikki at all.

Number two is because my other choice of winner - Sebastien Vettel, made a mistake early on in Lap 1 whereby he let Jensen Button overtake him after making a mistake and almost running himself off the track. All that after he stole pole from Button yesterday. The race could have been his but he lost it at the start.

Number three - Jensen Button winning again. As he himself said it, he has become a "right boring bastard". The races nowadays are just that - boring. It reminds me of the Schumacher and Ross Brawn era when Schumacher won 17 out of 18 races. What's the point of watching.

Othe than that, it was good to see at least 1 Brawn car slip to the back and not scoring points when Barichello had his anti-stall kick in at the start and demoting him to 13th then later he just retired. Reason unknown at this time.

All said and done, Red Bull were a serious threat to Brawn GP if only they had not made the little mistakes they did. Imagine if they had Ross on their pitwall.

Alvin.

TURKISH GP QUALIFYING

Well what can I say. It was both an exciting qualifying session and a disappointment as Lewis Hamilton did not even make it into Q2.

Lewis and Heikki both looked good during Friday practice 1 and 2. In fact, the almost dominated and stayed at the top of the timesheets on Friday and Saturday. Then when qualifying started, Lewis' car looked ragged, going all over the place. It's like the car with fuel just doesn't want to behave with the setup previously. Lewis was eliminated from Q2 and Heikki didn't fare too well either being left out of Q1 and holding on to P14.

The only excitement was during the dying seconds when Vettel took pole from Button. That was priceless. I was sure Button would take pole and sure enough he did after the chequered flag but then Vettel came barreling down the track and somehow grabbed pole with a tenth over Button. Great stuff.

It would seem the race will be between the Brawns and Red Bulls with the Toyota of Trulli and the Ferraris thrown in for good measure. I'm putting my money on Vettel though as I think the Red Bull has the pace to win and Vettel is so refreshing after seeing Button winning so many races. Go Vettel!

Qualifying: Vettel pips Button to pole

Saturday 6th June 2009

Sebastian Vettel brought an end to Jenson Button's spate of pole positions as he crossed the line 0.105s ahead of the Brawn GP driver at the Istanbul Park circuit on Saturday.

Vettel, who hadn't shown much pace in the weekend's final practice session, came good when it really mattered to take the coveted grid slot, with a 1:28.316. It was the Red Bull driver's second pole of the season and once again highlights that he is Brawn GP's biggest threat.

As for Button, he had to settle for second place on the grid with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him. Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli were next in line, having qualified ahead of the two Ferraris, Kimi Raikkonen in front of Felipe Massa.

Meanwhile, defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make it through Q1 as his McLaren lacked the pace and stability needed around this high speed track.

Qualifying 1
The characteristic close grid had tightened over the three practices with the gap between first place and twentieth at 1.9 seconds in first practice, 1.7 in the second and 1.4 in the third.

In bright sunlight at the Istanbul Otodrom the ambient temperature stood at 28C with the track at 46C. The track temperature was critical because Bridgestone had supplied their hard and soft compounds for the race weekend. Any warmer than 46C and they estimated that the harder tyre would be the fastest, any colder and it would be the soft.

Nick Heidfeld set the first meaningful P1 time at 1:28.794 in the revised BMW with its new double deck rear diffuser. This was edged steadily downwards as a succession of drivers took P1: Raikkonen, Trulli, Nakajima, Massa, Rosberg, Vettel, Nakajima on his second quick lap, Raikkonen (out for a second time) and then Jarno Trulli at 1:27.529

Having done little to the threaten the top five places in the timesheets over the whole weekend Sebastian Vettel then set the timing screens alight with a P1 of 1:27.330.

Nelson Piquet was enduring another torrid weekend with his Renault, appearing on cameras drifting sideways like a rally car in the fearsome Turn 8. It would be a consistent problem for both Renault drivers through the qualifying period.

As the clock ticked down to three minutes, the danger positions were: 11.Alonso, 12.Heidfeld, 13.Kovalainen, 14.Glock, 15.Sutil, 16.Hamilton, 17.Piquet, 18.Buemi, 19.Fisichella, 20.Bourdais.

Lewis Hamilton was finding his McLaren very difficult to drive and whereas the Brawn of Jenson Button looked extraordinarily smooth, Hamilton looked twitchy and uncommitted through Turn 8.

He failed to get into the top 15 on his final run just as brake failure on Nelson Piquet's cars put him into the gravel and out. In the closing seconds it was less about moves at the back of the field and more about moves at the front as the Brawns of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello sprung up to P2 and P3 respectively.

So out of qualifying went:

16.Hamilton
17.Piquet
18.Buemi
19.Fisichella
20.Bourdais.

Hamilton was the only major casualty of the session which saw a return to form for the BMWs.

Qualifying 2
With the track temperature dipping to 44C the green-walled soft tyres became more prominent as the tyre of choice. Nico Rosberg set P1 at 1:27.672, Felipe Massa reduced this to 1:27.462 on soft tyres. Rubens Barrichello took P1 with a 1:27.418 and Jenson Button hammered it down to 1:27.322.

Despite two purple (fastest) sectors Sebastian Vettel could only manage P2 on 1:27.333. He went round for a second lap to try and improve, set two more fastest sectors in S1 and S2 and then promptly dived down the pitlane.

As we got to the three-minutes-to-go mark there was just 0.25 separating P1 and P10.

The danger positions were: 7.Heidfeld, 8.Rosberg, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Alonso, 11.Nakajima, 12.Glock, 13.Kovalainen, 14.Sutil, 15.Webber (who had had to ditch his first timed run after running wide at Turn 8)

In the last few minutes everyone, including P1 man Button, took to the circuit for a final run. Across the line they came. Mark Webber made himself safe by grabbing P3, Kimi Raikkonen took P3, Timo Glock could only manage a disastrous P13, to rub this in team-mate Jarno Trulli took P1 with a 1:27.195, seconds later that was deposed by Vettel with a sensational 1:27.016. Alonso squeezed into P9, Rosberg took P8 and Heikki Kovalainen cemented McLaren's misery in P14.

So out went:

11. Heidfeld (just 0.5 off P1)
12.Nakajima
13.Glock
14.Kovalainen
15.Sutil

Kovalainen's exit was not surprising, but it was rare to see Timo Glock fall so short of Jarno Trulli, while the big news was that Robert Kubica had actually got his BMW into Q3 for a change.

Qualifying 3
The track was back to 46C for the final session and so drivers could choose to do one banzai lap on softs, one slow and one fast lap on softs, or two/three fast laps on hards.

Kimi Raikkonen set a tentative P1 with a 1:29.405, which Jarno Trulli sailed inside with a 1:28.858. On his first run Button could only set the P2 time before Sebastian Vettel claimed P1 with a 1:28.801.

Rubens Barrichello went out late with the idea of reeling off three timed laps - the last intended to be the fastest. After the first hot laps the positions were: Vettel, Trulli, Button, Webber, Alonso, Raikkonen, Massa, Barrichello, Kubica and Rosberg.

Fernando Alonso had an off-track excursion at Turn 8 like his team-mate which meaned he wouldn't keep his P5 for much longer. Rubens jumped to P7 but had another lap left.

Kimi Raikkonen took P2 as his fuel level reduced, but team-mate Felipe Massa looked curiously sluggish. Webber jumped into provisional pole which lasted for several seconds before Jenson Button crossed the line with a 1:28.421, Trulli couldn't better it and came home in P3 while Rubens crossed the line in P2.

All eyes switched to Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull as he set the fastest first sector, but went slower than Jenson in S2. Coming into the final turns he was still ahead, though, and crossing the line he clinched pole by 0.1 of a second. Making it a Red Bull, Brawn, Brawn, Red Bull mirror across the first two rows.

Ross Brawn was quick to admit that they were fuelled to Lap 17 and early indications are that the Red Bulls are fuelled to around Lap 15. Which means the Brawn cars are potentially still the quickest out there.

For the race; Jenson Button has been quicker off the line than Vettel this year and has the inside line for a Turn 1 that comes up very quickly. However Button will know that Barrichello has pulled two great starts on him this year and will be keen to get ahead. Certainly there is the potential for an all-out race between the top three drivers in the World Championship when the red lights go out tomorrow.

FH

Times
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:28.316
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:28.421
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:28.579
04 M. Webber Red Bull 1:28.613
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.666
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:28.815
07 F. Massa Ferrari 1:28.858
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:29.075
09 N. Rosberg Williams 1:29.191
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:29.357
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:27.521
12 K. Nakajima Williams 1:27.629
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:27.795
14 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:28.207
15 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:28.391
16 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:28.318
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:28.582
18 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.708
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:28.717
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.918

Source : Planet F1

Prac Two: Heikki sets the pace for McLaren

Friday 5th June 2009

Heikki Kovalainen showed massive signs of improvement in Turkey on Friday as the McLaren driver topped the timesheets, albeit by only 0.006s over Fernando Alonso.

Kovalainen hit the front of the timesheets prior to the halfway stage of the session and quickly set about extending his lead over the chasing pack. And although Alonso put in a late charge, the Spaniard found himself 0.006s off the pace.

Robert Kubica went someway towards putting his Monaco disaster behind him as the Polish driver finished in the third place.

However, it must be noted that all the drivers up and including Nick Heidfeld in 16th place were separated by just 0.7s.

Report: Friday's second practice got underway with the track temperature already sitting at a very warm 43'C and cloud cover building over the circuit. Seb Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Nico Rosberg were the first drivers out on track with Buemi and Rosberg both staying out for a second lap. Buemi crossed the line with a 1:38.417 which was easily beaten moments later by Rosberg, who took 7.8s off the Toro Rosso driver's time.

Nelson Piquet soon overhauled them both while Nakajima went third quickest ahead of Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock and Giancarlo Fisichella. Heikki Kovalainen was next into the P1 slot before Piquet returned to take it off him by 0.039s.

Rosberg became the first driver to take to the run-off area as he went wide at Turn 1. Kovalainen edged Piquet to hit the front of the pack but was soon beaten by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton while Robert Kubica went third ahead of Jenson Button. Fernando Alonso and Piquet slotted in second and third quickest while Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were eighth and 12th.

Jarno Trulli improved to second place, 0.033s off Hamilton's pace with Mark Webber taking P4. Kovalainen joins the list of those struggling to stay on track but goes on to take third place on his very next lap. Kovalainen was the next to go P1 with Nakajima slotting in behind him.

Sebastian Vettel's running was brought to an early end when the Red Bull racer's RB5 came to a halt on the side of the track at Turn 2. The German was third quickest when he stopped.

Hamilton put his car into an impressive slide as the McLaren driver lost control coming out of Turn 1. Three laps later, using the softer rubber, the Brit put his MP4-24 into a massive spin. He was, however, able to continue.

Kubica improved to second place as he Polish driver made good use of his new updates, which include a double-decker diffuser. Bourdais runs wide at Turn 1. The drivers appearing to be having a great deal of problems with that corner, with many taking to the run-off area.

Alonso moved up to second place behind Kovalainen, 0.201s off the McLaren driver's pace. Rosberg, Trulli and Glock tussled amongst themselves for the final top eight positions while Massa made his way into the top ten in 10th place.

Nakajima spun at Turn 1 but stayed out on track while Massa had to take to the run-off at Turn 12 after failing to slow his Ferrari down in time for the left-hander. He too was able to continue.

The session ended with Kovalainen in the P1 slot, just 0.006s ahead of Alonso. Kubica was third.

Times
01 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:28.841 37 laps
02 F. Alonso Renault 1:28.847 35 laps
03 R. Kubica BMW 1:29.056 35 laps
04 K. Nakajima Williams 1:29.091 37 laps
05 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:29.202 4 laps
06 J. Trulli Toyota 1:29.207 41 laps
07 N. Rosberg Williams 1:29.257 40 laps
08 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:29.305 35 laps
09 M. Webber Red Bull 1:29.383 39 laps
10 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:29.401 38 laps
11 F. Massa Ferrari 1:29.416 38 laps
12 J. Button Brawn GP 1:29.430 33 laps
13 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:29.435 31 laps
14 T. Glock Toyota 1:29.518 40 laps
15 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:29.520 33 laps
16 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:29.550 40 laps
17 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:30.081 33 laps
18 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:30.091 38 laps
19 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.295 39 laps
20 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.629 37 laps

Source : Planet F1

TURKISH GP 2009

The Turkish GP is here again this weekend. Both Friday practices were over today with some improvement from the big name teams of McLaren, Ferrari and BMW. The surprise were the Brawns were off the pace and Vettel had some soft of mechanical failure on his car.

I am pleasantly surprised that McLaren have made by the current standards a huge improvement compared to Monaco 2 weeks earlier. I was thinking that they would be having a problematic time at the low-medium downforce and fast flowing Istanbul track but so far they showed not only do they have pace but the grip is also there. The notorious and incredible turn 8 did not really throw them around.

For a more detailed report, I will re-publish the report from Planet F1 following this.

Alvin.