Turkish Grand Prix - Istanbul - 30 May 2010

[Guest]

The FIA have agreed the safety car rules are too open to mis-interpretation. Schuey still ended up 12th though. What a load of nonsense. I don't agree with the press having a go at Damon Hill though, this wasn't a drivng incident, it was a technicality on poorly written rules. Apparently the desire was to finish the race at speed as it would look rubbish to finish Monaco behind a road car. Hmmm, why didn't they just run with waved yellows then?

Anyway, can Webber do it again?

Will Kubica continue to run so close to the front?

Will Merc change the car even more to help Nico go a little slower?

Will 2 virgins, 2 Lotus and 2 HRT ever reach the end together in the same race?

Find out on Sunday

[MadBoB]

The FIA have agreed the safety car rules are too open to mis-interpretation. Schuey still ended up 12th though. What a load of nonsense. I don't agree with the press having a go at Damon Hill though, this wasn't a drivng incident, it was a technicality on poorly written rules. Apparently the desire was to finish the race at speed as it would look rubbish to finish Monaco behind a road car. Hmmm, why didn't they just run with waved yellows then?

Anyway, can Webber do it again?

Will Kubica continue to run so close to the front?

Will Merc change the car even more to help Nico go a little slower?

Will 2 virgins, 2 Lotus and 2 HRT ever reach the end together in the same race?

Find out on Sunday

[fullpint]

  RedBull had an engine blow!!! Button is looking good at the mo..

[halfpint]

bummer Vettel will be gutted. looking forward to the race tomoz.

[MadBoB]

Turkish GP grid
Saturday, 29 May 2010 13:09

1  WEBBER        Red Bull      1m26.295s
2  HAMILTON      McLaren       1m26.433s
3  VETTEL        Red Bull      1m26.760s
4  BUTTON        McLaren       1m26.781s
5  SCHUMACHER    Mercedes      1m26.857s
6  ROSBERG       Mercedes      1m26.952s
7  KUBICA        Renault       1m27.039s
8  MASSA         Ferrari       1m27.082s
9  PETROV        Renault       1m27.430s
10 KOBAYASHI     Sauber        1m28.122s

11 SUTIL           Force India
12 ALONSO          Ferrari       
13 DE LA ROSA      Sauber
14 BUEMI           Toro Rosso
15 BARRICHELLO     Williams
16 ALGUERSUARI     Toro Rosso
17 HULKENBERG      Williams
18 LIUZZI          Force India
19 TRULLI          Lotus
20 KOVALAINEN      Lotus
21 GLOCK           Virgin
22 SENNA           HRT
23 DI GRASSI       Virgin
24 CHANDHOK        HRT

[fullpint]

Only got to see some of the race........ Red Bull drivers are going to get a telling off from the BOSS tonite 

[halfpint]

what was vettel thinking???!!!!! wat a plonker he ruined the chances of 1st and 2nd for red bull. then both lotus went out within seconds of each other with hydraulic failure. Then to top it off, hamilton and button nearly did a red bull. what were they bloody thinking after seeing the red bull boys mess up right in front of them. perhaps they wanted to try to do the same thing.? petrov in 8th was knocked by alonso costing him his points and ended up down the ranks.  i reckon alonso should be scrutinized over that one.

[MadBoB]

Turkish Grand Prix result (58 laps)

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

Fastest lap: PETROV  1m29.165s (lap 57)

[MadBoB]

Best bit of the Turkish track? turn 8.
Webber was flat out through the multi apex long lefthander, and in qualifying Hamilton, Schumacher and a few others all found that flat out wasn't an option.

In the race, the speed of the Red Bulls through turn 8 proved to be the saviour to keep Hamilton behind Webber, lap after lap. At the start Vettel got loads more grip than Hamilton and sotted in behind Webber into turn 1.

Schumacher went around the outside and split Hamilton and Button taking 4th place into the first corner. Button was a bit meek with Shuey in the recent races getting stuck behind him for most of the race, not this time. Looked like Button let the red mist take over and just got on with it. So end of lap one top 4 are two red bulls, two mcLarens and away they went leaving the two Mercedes to drift away into the distance.

Hamilton chased down Webber and Button seen to have a watching role behind Vettel, until the first (and only) tyre stop. Hamilton was easily faster than the Red Bull ahead of him, but thanks to turn 8 he couldn't quite get close enough to make a pass. All down to the stop then? Well sort of, only Hamilton had a slight delay with a wheel nut Red Bull must have been loving it. Rather than losing the lead they ended up with a 1,2.

At this point if they'd looked after the cars, and run to the end, Webber would have won and Vettel would be second. However Vettel started to catch Webber and pull a gap on Hamilton. Then he fancied a go up the inside on one of the straights - watch the video and decide for yourself - neither gave way, Vettel for sure was a touch ahead, but then again on the dirt up the inside into a corner. Maybe he just lost it as he touched the brakes, who knows...the out come was the two Red Bulls clouted each other, Vettel retiring in the gravel with deranged rear suspension, Webber drove through the gravel, got back to the pits for a new nose and still got out again in front of Schumacher. Job done, Hamilton leading from Button...bring em home then....err except Button decided to have a go at Hamilton. Wow, 3 /4 corners later after driving side by side, Hamilton out dragged Button down the start finish straight and took the lead back into the first corner. Interestingly, they didn't take each other off.

'Critical fuel' was the message on the radio. hmmmm wonder if that means 'stop mucking about, look after the cars and stop racing each other' I suspect it does.

Red Bull - Webber great drive. Vettel, not so good. Neither gave way though so I can't lay all the blame on either.

McLaren - the only team to take a challenge to Red Bull and probably had a faster race car.

Mercedes - Team Schumacher got the better of Rosberg again. SLow though in comparison to the 4 cars ahead.

Renault - Great drive from Kubica (again) and a good one from Petrov, until he got a bit bothered by the front wing from Alonso - tyres dont like wings really.

Ferrari - Bit rubbish compared to the others. Alonso just sort of looked a bit rattled, and Massa beat him.

Force India - well done Sutil, Liuzzi didn't qualify well and the race was a bit messy at the start. doh.

Sauber - not bad for a bath tub really. Being chased down hard by Alguersuari at the end, but ran out of laps to steal a point.

Toro Rosso - Extra stop helped with the pace of Alguersuari at the end, Buemi did a good job unlapping himself round the Saubers...any point though?

Williams - I can't help thinking that the Coswrth engine just isnt really up to it. ALso Williams just don't seem to have the pace they looked like running with at the beginning of the year. Shame really, Williams are probably my favourites. Only because I went to their factory in the late 80's and played about with Mansell's and Patrese's cars. Even held the nose cone that got damaged at Monaco that year.

Virgin, HRT - claim to fame - both teams beat Vettel in a Red Bull....things must be on the up then. Ah heres a thought. HRT have split with Dallara the chassis manufacturer, there is a runour that the team has technical consultancy and chassis development with a company in Cologne....could be the old Toyata factory.....hmmm maybe they'll have some new parts soon, like a second hand Toyota chassi might be a good start. Wait and see. On the other hand Virgin had two long wheelbase cars this weekend. err well done? Dunno, can't say it looked to have made any improvement at all.

Lotus - not good. Both retired.