Hamilton Wins Nail-Biting Turkish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won his first race of 2010 in Turkey this afternoon, leading home teammate Jenson Button for a McLaren one-two, in a nail-biting 58 laps that saw the two Red Bulls collide, and very nearly saw the McLarens run out of fuel.

Mark Webber took an early lead from pole, while Hamilton slipped back behind Sebastian Vettel after a slow start from the dirty side of the grid. Michael Schumacher made a move from fifth, taking Button for fourth in the first corner, but while Hamilton snatched second back off Vettel in turn three, Button stole fourth from Schumacher in turn 12, using the pure straight-line speed of the McLaren to edge around the Mercedes.

Webber led Hamilton into the first round of pitstops, with Hamilton keeping the Red Bull honest, having a look once or twice into turn 12. Vettel had been the first of the front four to pit, on lap 15, and the early stop meant that when Webber and Hamilton stopped a lap later, Vettel managed to take second off Hamilton after the Brit was delayed in his pitbox.

Button was next to pit from the front four, but was unable to leapfrog the other three to take the lead, and he fed out behind his teammate. Hamilton fought to hold on to the Red Bulls, and on lap 18 he tried to pass Vettel into turn 12, but ran wide.

The front four stayed as they were for the laps that followed, keeping the gap between them down to less than three seconds. Webber was the slowest of the four, and on lap 40, Vettel made a move down the straight into turn 12, but the two collided, seeing an end to Vettel’s race, and leaving Webber in third. Hamilton went through to take the lead, with Button just over a second behind him.

Then came the message from McLaren to save fuel, as both drivers had a high consumption and there were fears they wouldn’t make it to the end of the race. Button reeled in Hamilton, and on lap 48, passed his teammate into turn 12. The two were wheel-to-wheel in a heart-in-mouth duel, as Hamilton fought to take the lead back off Button, making it stick into turn two on the following lap. Button was once again given a warning by the team to save fuel, and he backed off, following Hamilton home for a McLaren one-two.

Meanwhile, Webber, who was forced to stop for a new nose following his collision with Vettel, came through to finish third, while Schumacher, some 25 seconds off the leaders for the majority of the race, finished fourth.

Elsewhere in the field, the top ten on the grid resumed their positions for the majority of the race, Schumacher settling back into fifth after Button reclaimed fourth on the opening lap, while his teammate, Nico Rosberg, had a quiet race in sixth, ahead of Robert Kubica and Felipe Massa who started seventh and eighth. All four retained their positions for the majority of the race. Vitaly Petrov held ninth off the grid, while Adrian Sutil passed Kamui Kobayashi for tenth.

As the race began to unfold, Schumacher found himself fourth following Vettel’s retirement, with Rosberg fifth, Kubica sixth and Massa seventh. Fernando Alonso, who made his way up from 12th to ninth behind Petrov, had a fight for eighth on lap 54, and the two made contact, resulting in a puncture for Petrov, gifting ninth to Sutil and tenth to Kobayashi, who scored BMW Sauber’s first point of the season.

So while the fans were left with a nail-biting race that saw contact between the Red Bulls and a battle between the McLarens along with a fight to save fuel, Hamilton was left to take his first win of the season, edging him closer to Mark Webber in the fight for the title. Webber retains his lead in the championship on 93 points, with Button on 88, Hamilton on 84, Alonso holding on to fourth with 79 points, and Vettel out of the race and failing to score, leaving him on 78 points.

In the constructors’ battle, it’s all change, as McLaren lead the way on 172 points having scored the maximum of 43 points for the weekend. Red Bull sit in second on 161, with Ferrari on 146. Mercedes join the top three teams in triple figures, on 100 points, while Renault trail on 73.

So McLaren head to Canada in two weeks time, having caught up with the previously unstoppable Red Bulls. McLaren may have taken the lead of the constructors’ battle, but will Button or Hamilton be leading the drivers’ battle out of Montreal? Qualifying is on Saturday 12th June, with the race live on BBC1 at 5pm on Sunday 13th.

Webber on Pole in Turkey, While Hamilton Splits Red Bulls

Mark Webber made it a hat trick of poles in qualifying for tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix, this afternoon, while Lewis Hamilton completed the front row, splitting Webber from his Red Bull teammate.

Sebastian Vettel had been fastest in both Q1 and Q2, but lost out when it mattered, finishing third, four tenths behind Webber who set a time of 1:26.295 for pole.

Hamilton looked like he was going to be the one to end Red Bull’s run of six consecutive poles, but found himself a tenth off Webber’s time when he crossed the line for the final time.

Hamilton’s teammate, Jenson Button, who starts fourth in tomorrow’s race, had been on his final hot lap, when Michael Schumacher, who starts fifth, crashed out at turn eight, after the clock had stopped, bringing out the yellow flags, meaning Button had to lift off the power, seeing the end of his session.

Schumacher’s teammate Nico Rosberg will start the race from sixth, ahead of Robert Kubica in seventh, Felipe Massa in eighth, Vitaly Petrov ninth, and Kamui Kobayashi in tenth.

Fernando Alonso struggled in the Ferrari, getting out of shape on his final lap and missing out on the top ten shoot-out, down in 12th.

Adrian Sutil starts just ahead of the Ferrari driver in 11th, with Pedro de la Rosa in 13th, Sebastien Buemi 14th, Rubens Barrichello 15th, Jaime Alguersuari 16th, Nico Hulkenberg 17th, Vitantonio Liuzzi 18th, Jarno Trulli 19th, Heikki Kovalainen 20th, Timo Glock 21st, Bruno Senna 22nd, Lucas di Grassi 23rd and Karun Chandhok down in 24th.

The race starts tomorrow, live on BBC1 at 1pm.

Schumacher Issued 20 Second Penalty for Alonso Move

Michael Schumacher has been issued a 20 second penalty, demoting him from sixth in Monaco, to 12th.

The Mercedes GP driver had been running seventh in today’s Monaco Grand Prix before passing Fernando Alonso in the last corner of the race for sixth, when the race was technically still under ‘safety car conditions’.

Although both Alonso and Schumacher had passed the safety car line meaning they could overtake once the safety car had returned to the pits, Schumacher was penalised for passing the Ferrari as the regulations state that “if the race ends while the safety car is deployed it will enter the pitlane at the end of the last lap, and the cars will take the chequered flag as normal, without overtaking.”

Schumacher’s penalty means Alonso receives eight points for sixth, and now has 75 championship points. Nico Rosberg receives six points for seventh, with 56 world championship points, while Adrian Sutil receives four points, Vitantonio Liuzzi, two, and Sebastien Buemi takes the last point in tenth.

Mercedes have said they will appeal the decision.