F1 Turkey Race

The weather looks good for the start of the race and accepting the cars can go from zero to hundred miles an hour in four seconds turn one could be interesting. It's clear the dirty, right hand side of the grid isn't as fast as the clean, left side which could give Sebastian a punt into the first turn.

It will be interesting to see Fernando forcing his way through from twelfth and the first few laps could be exciting and the view through turn eight pulling 8g should be immense. The Red Bull durability still causes concern and this time with the rear wing which has had mods made to it since arriving in Turkey.

The cars launch from the grid for the warm up lap and the excitement builds. Can the Mclaren's use the abilities of the F duct to get ahead of the Red Bull's. Now the talking is over as the cars come to the line.

From the start as I forecast Sebastian went ahead of Lewis and Michael beat Jenson into turn one. Lewis soon took the place back and Jenson really set about Michael and went ahead fairly quickly which he had to do to keep with the leading three.

Lewis is really on the pace with Mark and his best chance of the season to go ahead and really challenging him on lap three. Great driving between the two of them. The front four are having a very interesting scrap and this is more like it.

It is interesting to watch Mark and Lewis through turn eight and The Red Bull is flat bit Lewis can't match there. However, he is then quicker through nine and ten keeping it close at the front. Watching Lewis into turn twelve on the bumps is unbelievable as the car seems very unstable but Lewis holds on.

We clearly saw Felipe and Robert come together early on and the tyre to tyre contact has put a groove in Felipe's near side front tyre but all seems well as the tyre is retaining its pressure. So after 10 laps it is Red Bull, Mclaren, Red Bull, Mclaren with only 3.8 seconds between first and fourth but only half a second between Mark and Lewis.

It does appear the Mclaren's have made great strides and are definitely matching the Red Bull's apart from turn eight. Fernando was the first to stop in lap twelve whilst Lewis is getting closer and closer to Mark even in the dirty air.

It seems Lewis only needs to sit this close to Mark until the first tyre stop and run an extra lap and he should take the lead. Jenson is also setting hot laps and maybe he can also take Sebastian.
Great driving between the two of them as they are very close as Sebastian comes in for his first stop.

Then surprisingly Mark and Lewis both came into the pits line astern and out they went and Mark was still in P1 followed by Sebastian but he was in front of Lewis due to his earlier stop.

Lewis now has a problem with two Red Bull's and we have to wait and see where Jenson comes out. In he comes on lap fifteen and he stops on the marks and he was gone but only feeds out in fourth and now the race is on and what a scrap we have to enjoy.

Then on lap twenty one they come across the back markers which can mix things up and Lewis is the one that can do it. Now we had rain forecast which comes as a surprise to all concerned and what have we to come. Lewis is really pushing Sebastian and he seems to like these hard tyres.

After twenty two laps the front four were already fifteen seconds ahead of Michael in fifth as the first back marker came and went without hitch for the front four. Who will gamble on intermediate tyres when the rain comes and the clouds look ever darker overhead. The front end of the Mclaren is stunning compared with the Red Bull's.

The track temp is 44 degrees and the rain will burn off quickly but that depends of how much of the wet stuff falls, we wait with baited breath. Wet tyres are being readied in anticipation of in the rain. The talk is of three mm's of rain and intermediate tyres seem a good call.

Behind the top four were Michael, Nico, Robert, Felipe, Vitaly and Fernando who are all quite close together. Nico is slowing down those behind him and they are all bunching up waiting to pounce. The track temp is tumbling down to below thirty degrees confirming the change in temperature since the start of the race.

Then on lap forty one Sebastian tried to pass Mark but as he got alongside he moved over into Mark. They touched and they both went off. Sebastian was out with a flat drivers side rear tyre. Oh dear, Sebastian got that wrong. Mark was also off but after a quick visit to the pits and with a new nose cone he came back and as he was so far ahead of Michael he rejoined in third, justice was done to some degree.

From the comfort of my armchair I have to say that was a ridiculous move on Sebastian's part and will no doubt affect Sebastian's championship and another one, two for gone. The change then gives Mclaren a one, two and a welcome change for the Woking team.

So through all this excitement Lewis took the lead followed by Jenson followed by Mark. Then an almighty scrap as Jenson took Lewis as they fought hammer and tongue. Great, clean stuff between the two Mclaren's as Jenson went ahead and Lewis then came straight back at him but all so close.

Brilliant driving between the two of them and maybe Mark and Sebastian should have done it like that. One wonders what the call was from the pit wall as the Mclaren pair nearly came together. Lewis was having none of it and immediately went 1.5 seconds ahead and all seemed to calm down. Brilliant from both drivers and obviously I am pleased they came through it without a problem.

The call from the pits we heard to Lewis to save fuel seems to have been ignored by Jenson and then we heard, after the excitement the same call to Jenson, wonder why! We still have rain on the cameras on lap fifty eight but the threat doesn't materialise.

Vitaly and Fernando were also having a spirited dice in the last few laps and eventually Fernando bullied his way through past Vitaly which damaged his front suspension and he went down the points and into the pits eventually. Fernando was going through whatever the Renault did in typical Fernando style.

So the finish eventually was a one, two for Mclaren and after the excitement of Jenson's pass on Lewis they need to both think themselves very lucky. Lewis showed his bottle with abundance and Jenson backed off sensibly so as not to do the same thing as the Red Bull drivers.

Behind them it was Mark (P3), Michael, Nico, Robert, Felipe, Fernando, Adrian and my fighting ace Kamui. Lewis drove a fantastic race and had the Red Bull's in sight from turn one. He waited, waited and waited and it came to him, which shows a maturity from my number one. Mclaren are coming slowly, slowly and it bodes well for us for the rest of the season.

The rain didn't come after all and gave us an excitement from start to finish from the top four. It is great to wonderful driving from the top four on the grid and let us have more of it.

After a very thrilling race the drivers and teams left Istanbul with changes at the top with Mark retaining his place with 93 points but now followed by Jenson (88), Lewis (84), Fernando (79), Sebastian (78), Felipe and Robert (67), Nico (66), Michael (34), Adrian (22), Vitantonio (10), Rubens (7), Vitaly (6), Jamie (3) and the last three Kamui, Nico H and Sebastian B (1).

In the team championship Mclaren take over the lead with 172 points followed by Red Bull (171), Ferrari (146), Mercedes (100), Renault (73), Force India (32), Williams and Toro Rosso (8) and BMW bringing up the rear with still only a single point.

Great race with superb driving from all the top drivers and a shame Sebastian made a horlicks of it. Now the teams move to Canada which comes back to F1 this year and another thrilling race in prospect around the streets of Montreal, 13 June.

F1 Quali Turkey

After the thrills and spills of Monaco the F1 circus moves to a totally different circuit in Istanbul Park in Turkey. It's tight, it's twisty and sometimes frustrating when coming to overtaking. The discussions about Michael's overtake at the last corner has caused a lot of controversy and it appears there was a Green flag telling Michael he could overtake but at least now the rules are clear for all which is a result.

There is much talk of who is to partner Fernando for 2011 and there are three drivers in the fray as the silly season starts. Mark (Webber), Felipe (Massa) and Robert (Kubica) are now rumoured to be in the fight for what must be the most iconic driver on the F1 grid.

After the problem of the blanket left in the air duct on Jenson's car has caused a complete rethink of the procedures prior to the race. The blanket left in the air duct caused the engine to overheat on his way to the grid and the engine was actually destroyed prior to the start of the race.

Today is the 800th race for Ferrari and what a history they have in the sport. The Mclaren F Duct, which appears to be huge benefit to Mclaren is still causing the other teams to catch up and Force India are the latest team to adopt it. The lap record here has stood since 2005 in a 1.24 set by Montoya, a name which seems history now and a 1.27 seems to be the pole target in 2010.

The Red Bull's and Mclaren's are both quick here which hopefully will create a good fight at the head of the field. So here we go into quali and it could be very interesting as the drivers all love it here. The track temp at 39 degrees and the changing wind direction will make it a challenge for all the drivers.

Both Mclaren's set the early pace in the 1.27's but the Red Bull's hadn't set a time at that point. Half way through the session there were 23 cars on circuit and then came the Mark & Sebastian who blitzed their way to one and two and once again who can catch them.

After Quali 1 out went Vitantonio, Jarno, Heikki, Timo, Bruno, Karun and Lucas which seems to be the set standard for the season so far.

All the cars were running on hard tyres through quali one and two and they will no doubt switch to the softer compound for the pole shoot out. As usual it was Red Bull and Mclaren in the top four followed by both Renault's with Vitaly ahead of Robert with 5 minutes to go. Both Ferrari's are not shining yet as well as Nico (R) and still out of the top ten albeit they will come.

Then came a shock as Fernando went out in Q2 which is surprising. Michael seems to becoming more as one with the Mercedes and maybe we all expected too much after his three year out of the sport. So we lost Adrian, Fernando, Pedro, Sebastian (B), Rubens, Jamie and Nico (H).

So the launch for pole started and this will be interesting as the Mclaren's are apparently getting closer to the Red Bull's. Turkey is the first of the four anti clockwise circuits on the calendar and pole appears to be in the mid 1.26's.

Lewis set the early pace but Mark once again put his Red Bull into P1 followed by Lewis, Sebastian and Jenson. Lewis is really throwing the Mclaren around the circuit and turn eight is exhilarating to watch with most on full throttle. It seems incredible to think the soft tyres are struggling to cover one lap at full speed.

So the grid looks like this, Mark, Lewis, Sebastian, Jenson, Michael, Nico (R), Robert, Felipe, Vitaly and Kamui. The Mclarens are getting closer and at least have split the Red Bull's. The Mclaren's speed down the straights may just give them a chance in the race.

So Mark does it again and he really is on a high after is last two wins.

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!