Jenson Button leads Istanbul practice session – Formula 1 News
McLaren have made some real progress on the tracks, to backup their claims of making ground on Red Bull in the Turkey Grand Prix. Defending world champion, Sebastian Vettel, who is also the table topper so far this season, was not able to make much progress
as he crashed out early in the first session, on turn eight of the Istanbul circuit.
Lewis Hamilton, who won the last race in China, was also quite impressive and was half a second behind Button, to finish in third position. Mark Webber managed the fifth quickest time. Nico Rosberg of Mercedes was a surprise package and managed to finish
second overall, while team-mate Michael Schumacher, finished fourth.
Fernando Alonso was quite impressive in the first practice session and managed to get the fastest time of the morning, but in the second session, he ran into some hydraulics problem and finished at eleventh spot.
Vettel, who leads the driver standings by 21 points, did not have a great start to the European leg of the season. He could not control his car as he made his way out of turn eight and on a wet surface, his car crashed into the barriers.
Red Bull put up big screens around their garage and made sure that rival teams and the media did not get a peak of the amount of damage their car had suffered. The Austrian team was not able to get the car fixed in time, for the second practice session.
Team Principal, Christian Horner, said, “It was one of those things. We were keen to look at the intermediate tyres but as he went out the rain increased. He was just unlucky and unfortunately it did quite a bit of damage. He managed to hit about every corner
of the car. It just caught him out. The team have plenty to do this evening. Sebastian missed out on a lot of running time."
Horner went on to say that the crash has not deterred the team from their targets and he has no doubt that the qualifying and race, will go ahead as planned. He said that Webber is getting what he wants in the car and his practice sessions were quite heartening.
Last season, it was Mark Webber in Turkey who led the race and looked set to win. Vettel was just behind him and tried to go past the Aussie on a number of occasions, but he did not let his partner through. Vettel made an audacious attempt to move ahead
and in the process, took a very risky turn and slammed into Webber’s car.
As a result, Webber moved into third spot while Vettel’s race ended right after the accident. The incident could have derailed the season for the team, as the rift between the two drivers had reached a boiling point. Horner played a key role in maintaining
harmony between the two and Vettel ended up winning the title.
Looking at the action that took place on the tracks during the two practice sessions, Ferrari and McLaren do seem to have found the formula for correct upgrades, on the European leg of the season. Nonetheless, it would be too early to say how much others
have improved, until Sebastian Vettel gets his time on the tracks.
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