Race: Double for McLaren, first victory for Hamilton

This weekend, Turkey experienced a Grand Prix full of surprises with a collision between the two Red Bulls and a McLaren one-two finish, among other events.

Overtakes begin from the start of the Grand Prix with Vettel overtaking Hamilton, but the McLaren doesn’t back down and regains its initial position. No collisions are reported, at least until the second lap when Buemi and Hülkenberg collide. The Toro Rosso, with a burst rear right tire, has to go through the pits and ends up last.

The first pit stops begin around lap 10 with Alonso, Petrov, Sutil, Kubica, and Massa switching to hard tires. Then it’s the turn of the leading drivers with Vettel’s stop, followed the next lap by Webber, who was leading at the time, and Hamilton. Both drivers stop, but both teams lose time, especially McLaren, by about two seconds compared to Red Bull. Webber exits ahead of Vettel, but Lewis, having lost two seconds too many, comes out behind the German.

Until lap 28, the drivers cannot overtake each other, groups form, and the drivers follow each other wheel to wheel.

Trulli in his Lotus is forced to stop on the left side of the track on lap 35. But 5 laps later, the drama unfolds as the two Red Bulls leading the race collide. Indeed, Vettel, harassed by Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, decides to overtake his teammate, but both Red Bulls crash and make a mistake. The young German (Vettel) bursts his right rear wheel and is forced to retire, while the Australian (Webber) has minimal damage and goes through the pits to change his front wing and tires but loses a lot of time in his maneuver and finds himself off the podium while Hamilton takes the lead.

On the 48th lap, a few drops fall on certain parts of the track. At the same moment, Button attempts to overtake his teammate in the penultimate corner and succeeds. On the pit straight, Button is first, but Hamilton, in the slipstream, moves out and overtakes him at the first corner with a very slight contact without consequence.

As for Alonso starting 12th, he finds himself stuck behind the young Russian Vitaly Petrov. Annoyed, he attempts an overtake on the 54th lap and passes him with slight contact, which causes a puncture on the Renault, excluding him from the points.

There remain four laps which unfold smoothly with a one-two finish for McLaren and a first victory this season for Hamilton. A disappointed Webber finishes in 3rd place.

Race Result – Turkish GP – Sunday, May 30, 2010: