Mark Webber drove a well controlled race in Turkey until the 40th lap. Up to that point he had not been able to get more than a second over Lewis Hamilton in the early laps and then after the first stops Sebastian Vettel. The German then seemed to get a little desperate, perhaps because he has been outclassed in recent races by Webber, and tried a move to pass the Australian on lap 40. He seemed to have the pace to pass, but he did not have the space to pull off the move and as a result he crashed into his team-mate. This spun Vettel out of the race, and damaged Webber’s front wing, which caused him to go off. Mark stayed out for a few laps but finally pitted and dropped back to a distant third, still ahead of the Mercedes GP Petronas cars of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, who were shadowed all the way by Renault’s Robert Kubica, who seemed to be cooped up behind the silver cars.
With the Red Bull’s out of the way, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton had a splendid duel for the lead, which saw Jenson catch Lewis out on lap 48. The two were side-by-side through five corners before Lewis went back ahead at the first corner on lap 49. The two touched wheels and Lewis went ahead.
Later on there was disappointment for Vitaly Petrov, who had driven a good race for Renault, racing in ninth for most of the afternoon. On lap 54 Fernando Alonso forced his way through, snagging the Russian’s right front tyre on his way through. This meant that Vitaly had to pit and dropped out of the points, ending the day in 15th but setting the fastest lap.
It was a well-balanced race until lap 40 when the Grand Prix exploded into controversy. After that it was action all the way to the flag.
“It was a f@#king disaster,” said Webber, trying not to seem irritaed by what his young team-mate had done to him. despite this he leads the World Championship by five points, with Button second and Hamilton third. In the fight for the Constructors’ Championship, McLaren is one point ahead of Red Bull Racing.
A f@#king disaster, indeed!
No wonder Adrian Newey’s head was in his hands…
At least petrov got the minor consolation of fastest lap
Red Bull driver debriefing should be interesting. Vettel picked the wrong place for a tight gamble. And Webber isn’t known for leaving a lot of room on the track.
Hamilton seemed very very subdued after the win. Interesting to note that his girlfriend was back at a race for the first time this season. But his father was not. This is Lewis’ first win without his father being present, following their split, but he did dedicate the win to him.
Adrian wasn’t the only one facepalming on the RBR pitwall. I’m pretty sure there wasn’t straight face on the entire team as they watched that incident in horror. And then HAM/BUT decided to try the same thing, apparently.
All told I’d say that was the most exciting race I’ve seen in Turkey, and nobody actually made a racing pass, which leaves me scratching my head a little bit. And all the action was BEFORE the rain.
In other news…whats the deal with Ferrari? Have they already given up this year’s efforts for next year’s car? So much going on this weekend, this could be the turning point of the entire season for the top teams. I guess we’ll see the fallout in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait to see your take on this stuff.
Apparently Red Bull was in the process of telling Webber to make way for Vettel as the German was the faster of them both at this point of the race and the McLarens were catching up. Yet (and Helmut Marko said that on German TV) Webber’s race engineer had not told his driver to move aside at that point so he was surprised to find Vettel next to him on the inside line and saw no reason to let him through. Even if this was the case: why didn’t Christian Horner go on the radio to spread this rather important message himself?
As for the move itself: It always takes two drivers for such a stupidity and I think it’s unfair to put all the blame on Vettel’s door. He was almost on the grass and there was no space because Webber didn’t give him any even though he had half a mile of tarmac to the right of him. Vettel’s swerve to the right might have been a counter reaction. It’s not the first Webber pushed someone almost off the track way befiore the braking zone. Anyway, they both behaved in the very wrong manner. A few laps later the two McLaren driver showed how it’s done and how it’s done respectfully.
Webber’s Victory was Vetteled!
These guys have form. Wasn’t it behind the safety car in a storm in Malaysia where Seb ran into Mark, thus causing Mark to complain about (to borrow Joe’s terminology) the “f@#king kids”
I think we will all be looking forward to your final analysis of this incident Joe.
Ummm…perhaps you should catch a replay, Martin. Then tell us again how much room Vettel didn’t have…
Vettel was clearly faster than Webber. This was Webber’s fault. He should have given the guy more room. If Schumacher had done this, he would have received a 20 second penalty!
@Martin. I’m sorry, but from what I saw, Mark reacted exactly the way you would expect of a F1 driver. And regardless of what was said, if the drivers had been informed that Vettel should overtake, why didn’t Vettel find a more appropriate, not to mention safer, place?
I’m afraid it doesn’t “…always take two drivers for such stupidity…” unless you take the Japanese attitude that by being at the site makes you a culpable element in the accident! But then we wouldn’t have racing as such; we’d have individual cars on the track one at a time, and the fastest lap time wins.
If Vettel was almost on the grass, he was in the wrong place to attempt his maneuver. I don’t think you can blame Webber for not simply handing over his lead.
So sorry Martin, regardless of what Helmut Marko might have said on German TV after the event, you’re talking complete twaddle!
Even if Vettel was faster, there was no reason to call for him to go through, except only to advance Vettel. They were running 1-2, so even if Vettel was faster and Webber needed to conserve fuel, the result for the team would have been the same.
Webber and Vettel were 1-2. It’s not like Vettel was being cut-loose to chase after even more points. They were far enough ahead that they were not being challenged by Hamilton and Vettel could have easily defended.
Webber was quite un-Webber-like. He was more than fair in this case, giving a car width to his team mate. Webber is not the easiest man to pass and how many times have we seen him drive other drivers to the wall or to the grass?
This will certainly make for some interesting quotes.
We have been watching slower cars ahead of faster cars for the entire season without so much as a complaint. That’s the way it is when you are talking about one hundredths or one thousandths of a second for a particular segment. They were racing for position and it certainly appeared to me that Vettel turned into Webber. The risk of either McLaren passing them was zero – absolute zero. The certainly was no excuse or radio transmission which indicated Webber should let Vettel pass. The procession continues. The lack of intellect continues. If Vettel had the chance then go for it, but if he was sufficiently in front of Webber, Webber would have to have braked extremely hard to let Sebastian make the turn, if he even could have.
Ludicrous and immature. This time I could not have emulated Webber’s coolness in the post race interview.
Mssr. Vettel needs to grow up. His coronation to supersede his German compatriot may be premature
I’d like to add here that I’d love to see Red Bull’s rivals take advantage of this team derision within Red Bull and add fuel to the fires. Start playing those mind games in the media. Horner has the biggest mouth when it comes to this. He did it last year and it backfired. He has been doing it this year and it has backfired. Now there are all sorts of problems within the team thanks to the turkey at Turkey. Seems you don’t throw stones, Christian Horner, when you live in a glass house!!!
If RBR told Webber to allow Vettel through because he’s faster then there are two things that would have happened:
1. Webber would have made it more obvious that he was letting Vettel through, as apposed to trying to make it as hard as possible
2. The FIA would investigate as team orders aren’t allowed in that way (i.e. it wasn’t strategy such as 2 stops vs 1 stop for each car)
I thought the regulations stated that once an overtaking car was half a car length past you or more , that you had to make room for them to avoid a collision. In other words, the right to maintain the racing line has been forfeited. From the ‘aerial’ view of the incident, at one stage, Vettel was not only much faster, but also almost past Webber. I surmise that 1/ Webber did not see him or 2/ Webber did not expect him or if he did, not on that side 3/ Webber reacted as if it was an enemy and not his team mate. 4/ The only driver that could and should have avoided the contact, once the move was initiated, was Webber. 5/ Is this a team player? 6/ the Hamilton/Button tussle could have gone the same way, but both Hamilton and Button when being overtaken avoided the inevitable collision which self ambition sometimes engenders. (Western Australia)
Webber was staying straight, Vettel went quite hard right straight into his own team mate. ! If Red Bull had a hand in slowing Webber down it is the biggest act of stupidity in F1 history. Vettel is quick but has shown still maybe not experienced to hold it all together. Webber has shown to be quick too, out qualifying Vettel many times lately. If red bull are playing favorites already as it seems they are showing their inexperience and will lose the World title to McLaren as they lost the race yesterday.
“He seemed to have the pace to pass, but he did not have the space to pull off the move and as a result he crashed into his team-mate.”
Joe, I have to disagree with this. Vettel was left just enough space by Webber, not more, but it should have been enough. Onboard shots clearly prove it. They also prove that Vettel turned right slightly as he was passing Webber. Maybe Vettel did not see where Webber was, but he should have known it. Vettel should have made that pass stick on the inside and won the race. But this time he blew it.
Darius
Yes, I could hve phrased that better. It was written much earlier before I had had the chance to see all the available pictures and so on. Such is the way when one is trying to do things in a timely fashion.