Vettel dominates Turkish Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel sets the pace for his third win of the season

9 May 2011

World champion Sebastian Vettel was unstoppable this weekend as he conquered the Turkish Grand Prix and secured his third win of the season

after closely missing out in China. Having taken the pole position in the qualifiers, Vettel returned to his winning ways by leading almost every lap and using a four stop strategy. He crossed the line seconds before his team mate Mark Webber and 10 seconds clear of Alonso who took third place. The 23 year old who became the youngest ever championship winner last year said

It was a great result today - especially after I gave the team so much work on Friday, I hope giving a victory back goes some way to help them forget it

It proved to be a eventful day for McLaren with great racing between Hamilton and Button. After a dramatic race full of overtaking surprising pit stops, Hamilton eventually finished fourth and Button finished sixth place. Hamilton saw a disappointing pit stop as his third visit did not go as smoothly as hoped when the mechanic struggled to get the front wheel right tyre changed quick enough and ended up loosing out on 10 seconds. Schumacher wasn't performing at the same level as his team-mate Rosberg, who seems to be getting more out of the car than he was and he ended up twelfth place behind Massa. Vettel made it look so easy at the weekend and I wonder how much his success is down to him and how much of it is the car, it would be interesting to see another top driver such as Hamilton or Alonso in a similar car to help compare. In fear of having this competition become a little too predictable, it would be good to see somebody else win other than Vettel!

The Results

  • Sebastian Vettel
  • Mark Webber
  • Fernando Alonso
  • Lewis Hamilton
  • Nico Rosberg
  • Jenson Button
  • Nick Heidfield
  • Vitaly Petrov
  • Sebastien Buemi
  • Kamui Kobayashi