First off, I apologise for the lack of a post last weekend. Revision for AS exams was taking over somewhat, but never fear: I'm back.
As I write this, I'm listening to a spot of Fleetwood Mac. The lyric of this particular song is rather relevant to today's on-track action at Istanbul Park – 'I know I can't lose, as long as you follow'. If Sebastian Vettel had taken that particular piece of advice, it's more than likely that his Red Bull stable-mate Mark Webber would have taken his 3rd successive victory. However, the German decided to take the risk of trying to pass his teammate for the lead, which in this particular instance went horribly wrong. The resulting collision left the door wide open for Lewis Hamilton to take a very much overdue first win of the season from his own McLaren teammate Jenson Button, but even before that point a big question mark had been placed over the alleged superiority of the Red Bull package.
The Anglo-Austrian cars, whilst maintaining their season-long monopoly on pole position, failed to secure the front row as they had done so emphatically at China and Spain – Hamilton was able to sneak his McLaren into 2nd position on the grid, with Button not far behind Vettel after qualifying a place behind the German in 4th. The Mercedes cars of Schumacher and Rosberg had the 3rd row sown up between them, whilst Ferrari were disappointing to say the least with 8th and 12th places – Alonso made another critical error in qualifying which ruined his chance of making Q3.
Still, having failed to qualify 1-2, the Red Bulls were able to get into that position before Turn 1, with Hamilton and Button both having lost a place each from the start thanks to grid slots on the dirtier side of the grid. Despite that, before the end of the lap both Britons were able to regain their lost positions from German superstars Vettel and Schumacher respectively. So, by the end of the first lap, and indeed right until the pitstops, the order was Webber, Hamilton, Vettel, Button, Schumacher and Rosberg, albeit with Hamilton having taken several abortive attempts to take the lead at turn 12.
The first of the leaders to lap was Vettel on lap 15, followed by Webber and Hamilton simultaneously one lap later. The McLaren pilot was delayed momentarily by Webber passing his pit box as he left the pit, costing him sufficient time to fall back to 3rd place. Button meanwhile left his stop until lap 18, and despite closing up to the lead trio, was unable to gain any places. Behind the lead quartet, Schumacher had by now driven clear of his teammate Rosberg, who headed up a train consisting of himself, Kubica, Massa, an impressive Petrov and Alonso who had clawed his way back to 10th after a shaky start, battling with the somewhat revitalised Sauber cars of Kobayashi and De La Rosa.
At the front, as the laps wore on it became clear that race leader Webber was in fact the slowest of the 4 lead cars. By Lap 40, Vettel was hounding his teammate hard for the lead of the race with the threat of rain showers looming large. On Lap 41, the German hotshoe lined himself up for a pass on the easy-going Aussie. Down the back straight leading up towards turn 12, Vettel darted left of Webber who was already clearly on the defensive. As he tried to move back onto the racing line, thinking by this point he'd cleared the No.6 Red Bull, there was contact. Both cars were spat out into the tarmac runoff at turn 12, with Vettel out on the spot with rear suspension damage, but with Webber able to continue with a damaged front wing that required an extra pitstop.
That cleared the way for battle royale to commence between messers Hamilton and Button, and commence it did. On Lap 48, Button went for a bold move around the outside of 2008 champion at passing place of choice Turn 12, but Hamilton cleverly fought back with a finer run onto the pit straight to take the lead back at Turn 1, the pairing getting oh-so-close to repeating the unfortunate fate of the Red Bull pairing. Alas, the racing was clean, and after that brief but heart-stopping tussle, Button fell back concerned with saving fuel. That wasn't the only skirmish going on in the field however – a small touch between Alonso and Petrov gave the former 8th place and the latter a puncture and thus the need for an extra spot, and further behind, the two Saubers continued to dice for the final point for 10th place.
With Button gradually falling back, Hamilton cruised home for his first win of the season, and McLaren's second 1-2 of the year was affirmed by the reigning champion finishing in second place. Webber, having amassed a 32-second advantage over Schumacher prior to his tangle with Vettel, was able to hold onto 3rd place despite the need for an extra trip to the pits. Schumacher was able to cement his supremacy over Rosberg for the weekend by finishing ahead of him in 4th place, whilst Kubica held off the Ferraris of Massa and Alonso to take another solid result for Renault. Sutil trundled to the flag to take another 2 points for 9th, whilst Sauber scored their first point of the season at last courtesy of Kamui Kobayashi.
Despite being understandably sombre in the driver's press conference, Webber still in fact leads the way for points narrowly from Button and Hamilton who leaps up to 3rd from 7th in the standings. The real question though is would the Red Bull duo have been able to hold on had it not been for their clash? Nobody will know for sure, but it's clear now that Christian Horner's squad can certainly no longer afford to rest on its laurels – McLaren now loom large.
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