F1 Turkey - The Race

Welcome to Turkey 2009 on the fabulous circuit at Istanbul Park. What Turkey needs now is a F1 driver to pull in the crowds as to date that is not happening. The same happened with Spain until Fernando came along and then they poured in by their thousands, lets hope someone comes along to fire that interest in the Turks.

So, we had Sebastian (Vettel)on pole with Jenson hot on his heels and Rubens lurking. All went well on the warm up lap with the usual tyre warming antics. There were concerns again about the Green walled tyres not lasting and certainly all the teams preferred the harder tyres. They have to run both types of course and it was just a matter off choice against pit stops.

Most teams went for the hard tyres from the start but Fernando thought better and started on the the softer Green walled jobbies, mistake or not? It did mean once the first stint was over he could run the rest of the race on the hard tyres but by then maybe it was too late. Most of the teams on the hard tyres at the start finished the last stint on the softer tyres, so just a matter of strategy.

Off they went at 1300 UK time into the first corner which is blind on the approach very similar to Brazil. Sebastian (V) retained his pole into the first corner quickly followed by Jenson, Mark and the rest.

It was thought Rubens may beat Jenson to the first corner on the better side of the circuit but whatever he did in the car caused it to go into anti-stall and he went backwards very quickly to about 13th.

In the meanwhile Sebastian (V) got corner 9 all wrong and Jenson pounced into the lead which he was never to relinquish. In his plight to move forward Rubens was having a very adventurous afternoon banging into people with gay abandon. Then he announced he had lost 7th gear and his race was basically done and on lap 47 he finally retired from way down in the pack.

Jenson and Sebastian had their first pit stops and as Sebastian was on a 3 stopper he was lighter than Jenson and pulled right up to the Brawn's tailpipes. He tried always to get past but Jenson was too canny for that and Sebastian remained in the dirty air of the Brawn to the next pitstop and he was gone.

Mark was on the same strategy as Jenson and once Sebastian had his pitstop's he lost P2 to Mark and it remained that way to the finish. Sebastian had a call from the pits confirming "Mark is faster than you so hold position", that didn't fool anybody so what about team orders "did you hear any!

Behind these 3 Jarno and Nico had a race long battle with the former coming off best but a great showing form the Williams and had it not been for a hiccup in the pits Kazuki would have also been in the points.

The Ferrari's were again disappointing with Felipe running 6th the whole race and just not able to get in touch with Jarno and Nico. Kimi had a miserable day and finished a lonely 9th and nil point. Robert (Kubica) had a better race for BMW finishing in the points with 2 points for 7th.

Timo (Glock) took the last point so both Toyota's finished in the points which bodes well for them with Nick (Heidfeld) finishing in 11th. At least the BMW's have come on since the past few races where they finished last or almost last.

What about the Mclarens we ask ourselves. Well Lewis stared from 16th and finished 13th ahead of his team mate who started one place in front. The car is a dog and one had only to watch the on board with Lewis coming through turns 8, 9 and 10 to see why. He obviously has a complete lack of confidence in the car as he simply has no grip.

The team say they are building a new car and it will be out in Germany but one has to suggest they may have to work a few more hours and get it ready for Silverstone in 2 weeks or it will be sad for all the Lewis fans at this home GP.

They worked so hard in the final stages of last year to win the championship they simply haven't had the time to work on the 2009 car, this is Mclaren we are talking about!

So, Turkey finished up another Jenson / Brawn benefit. In the drivers conference Jenson said the car was fantastic and probably the best it has been all season. Both Mark and Sebastian agreed with that and a tribute to the team and that man Ross Brawn. Maybe Mclaren should get Adrian Newey back from Red Bull to put Lewis back up at the sharp end.

Lets hope Jenson can do the same on his official home grand prix at Silverstone and the fans would then have 2 drivers to shout for albeit one at the front and one at the back.

Just 2 retirements this time for Rubens and Giancarlo with Jenson taking the fastest lap with a 1.27.279, an average speed of 219.422.

Well done Jenson and one wonders if this glorious season is ever going to end with 6 wins out of 7 starts equalling Schumacher and Ascari a long while ago. He is going to take some catching now with his closest rivals being Rubens, 26 points behind and Sebastian (V) 32 behind. He is going to have to drop out of the points on many races now for others to catch him.

Brawn are a country mile away in the constructors championship now on 96 points being 40 points ahead of Red Bull and then after that it is Toyota on a far away 32.5 points.

Bring on Silverstone and let us all hope Lewis has a car rather than a tractor!