Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix
The angry young man has proven his mettle once it again. Lewis Hamilton won the Turkish Grand Prix on Sunday at the Istanbul Park Circuit.
Lewis Hamilton and his teammate Jenson Button gave a one-two on race day, ending the race in favor of the McLaren team. No doubt they owe this victory to the Red Bull team as it was actually their suicidal mistake that allowed the British team to go for glory. Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel crashed into each other, thus losing their lead in the race. Though it was a disappointing event for Red Bull, yet it proved to be a revitalizing agent for the demoralized McLaren Team.
After the Red Bulls crash their chances, there was not much of a competition for Hamilton and his partner. The Ferraris and Mercedes did not give a tough time to Hamilton and Button, who proved to be the only ones ready to take over the Red Bulls once they had the chance.
McLaren’s efforts were visible right from the beginning only until the fortieth lap when Webber and Vettel maintained the first and second positions with firm control. It was only when the Red Bull drivers crashed into each that the opportunity of victory became clearer for McLarens who were driving all by themselves. The victory in Turkey has allowed Hamilton’s his first victory in ten races.
The clash between the Red Bull drivers created a direct war in the forty-eight and forty-ninth laps when the British pair decided to outdo each other. This was the first real wheel-to-wheel competition we have seen between the McLaren drivers in the heady hype season. Hamilton did not take it long to get his first position back from Button.
McLaren had its first opportunity to get beyond Webber on the fifteenth lap, when both of them came in for a pit-stop. McLaren's poor wheel change not only deprived Hamilton to gain some time. However, Hamilton moved passed Webber only to be overtaken by Vettel. At that time, the results of the race seemed too predictable for McLaren and the Red Bulls team.
Hamilton had already announced that the race was dedicated to his father who celebrated his 50th birthday on Sunday. Hamilton explained with joy after the race that at one moment, he had thought that the race was gone. On an inquiry, Hamilton briefed reporters in Turkey that he had a fine little battle with Jenson in Turkey. Jenson had crossed him well into the thirteenth turn but fortunately Hamilton was able to get his lead back. He added that the battle was fairly fought. A genuine goodwill between the team members in the slow-down lap where Button excitedly said to Lewis on his car radio, "That was excellent, well done, Lewis."
McLaren's chief engineer, Tim Goss explained that both the drivers were instructed to save their fuel after a very aggressive strategy at the start of race. He added that identical lap times were also given to both the drivers.
This was surely one of the outstanding races of this season with only one stinker at the beginning in Bahrain. However, despite the fact that the victory went into the lap of Hamilton, Webber still leads in the points table for the Constructor’s Championship. Button stays five points behind him and Hamilton is sitting on the third position. With this race done and dusted, Vettel has slipped to the fifth place in the table. Ferrari remains the biggest disappointment of the season with their failure in its 800th Formula One race. Fernando Alonso finished at the eighth place, after starting from the twelfth position. Felipe Massa finished at the seventh place after starting from the eighth position at the grid. Michael Schumacher was successful to edge out Nico Rosberg who also remains his team mate.
At the end of the day, Red Bull proved that they still lead with the fastest car. McLaren on the other hand proved to be the only car that has improved their capabilities this season.
McLaren can mark the 40th death anniversary of Bruce McLaren, the team's founder, who was killed on the 2nd of June 1970 in a test run at Goodwood. Also, it was a good end for Hamilton who had dedicated this race to his father.
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