Button takes Turkey, one hand on the title?
Jenson Button secured his sixth win from seven races today in Turkey to extend his championship lead to 26 points over team-mate Rubens Barrichello who failed to finish after a dramatic day. With title rival Sebastian Vettel finishing in third position, Button surely now is in a very commanding position as he aims for the championship with Brawn Mercedes.
The start of an entertaining Turkish Grand Prix saw Vettel make a good getaway from his pole position with Button slotting in behind. Starting third, Barrichello almost stalled his Brawn and plummeted down the field allowing a fastest starting Jarno Trulli up to third position with Mark Webber right behind.
Vettel’s one error came on that first lap as he ran wide through turn nine and with his momentum lost, Button breezed by to take the lead, one he would never relinquish.
The Red Bull Renault team has opted to run Vettel with a slightly lighter fuel load than both Button and Webber in the second RB5 but opted not to switch from three stops to two once the Chinese Grand Prix winner lost the lead. This error would prove critical in the latter stages of the race as Vettel dropped behind Webber and the race for second was effectively over.
Webber drove a strong race and fully deserved his runner-up position to close within 1.5 points of Vettel in the battle for third in the championship. After being jumped by Trulli off the line, the Australian racer soon forced his way ahead and then ran 20 seconds or so behind eventual winner Button until the final laps. Conserving his Brawn Mercedes, the championship leader allowed the gap to tumble to seven seconds at the chequered flag.
Jarno Trulli has a very solid race for Toyota. After losing position to Webber early in the race, the Toyota racer found himself behind Nico Rosberg following the first round of stops. The Italian veteran pressed on and regained the position in the second and final stop.
Rosberg duly finished fifth in his Williams Toyota, his best result of the season, but lost may have lost time behind team-mate Kazuki Nakajima ahead of his second stop and this could have cost him the fourth position. Nakajima himself ran well and was challenging for points until problems fitting the front-left wheel in the final stop dropped him down the order.
Felipe Massa had a quiet race to fifth in the leading Ferrari as he trailed Rosberg by eight seconds across the line while Robert Kubica secured his first points of the season with a seventh place finish in his BMW Sauber.
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The team are still a long way from being a front-runner, but at least they made gains this weekend following the disastrous Monaco showing. Kubica held off a charging drive from Timo Glock in the second Toyota who made best of a long first stint to beat some big names.
Kimi Raikkonen lost ground at the start and then made light contact with Fernando Alonso to damage his front right wing endplate. It mattered little as the F60 had little race pace and the 2007 champion finished out of the points in ninth position.
Another champion was out of the points and that was Renault star Fernando Alonso. With a light fuel load from eighth position on the grid, it was always going to be a tough race and the Spaniard duly finished in tenth position.
Nick Heidfeld finished 11th in the second BMW Sauber ahead of Nakajima and the McLaren Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen. The Turkish Grand Prix was a disaster for the Woking-based team with the flaws in the MP4-24 package cruelly exposed through the long four-apex turn eight. Hamilton at least made best of a one stop strategy to finish on the lead lap.
Sebastien Buemi led the Toro Rosso team to 15th position ahead of Nelson Piquet in the second Renault, Adrian Sutil in the surviving Force India and finally Sebastien Bourdais who was the final finisher in 18th.
Giancarlo Fisichella retired from 18th early in the race with a recurring braking issue while Barrichello had a most entertaining race.
Starting third, Barrichello’s Brawn Mercedes almost stalled off the line dropping the Brazilian down the order. By lap nine of 58 Barrichello found himself in a great tussle for 11th place with Kovalainen and after a few moments, contact was made dropping him behind Hamilton. The Brawn racer made a clean pass on the defending champion and then was overly optimistic on a pass on Sutil. After a stop for a new front wing he resumed before retiring on lap 49 with a gearbox problem.
Barrichello’s problems is good news for Button as he really does now enjoy a commanding championship lead heading to his home Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks time.
Earl ALEXANDER
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