Turkish Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights (Part 10)
Welcome back to the action from the Turkish Grand Prix.
Jenson Button made another lunge on Felipe Massa for sixth position and managed to get all 4 of his Pirellis ahead of the Ferrari. However, while there was joy at one end for McLaren, there was drama at the other – A disastrous pit stop for Hamilton, that
ran over fifteen seconds, definitely lost him a position or two on track.
The pit lane got another visitor soon after in the form of Vitaly Petrov as the Russian driver opted for a set of soft compound tyres for his Renault. He was joined by Felipe Massa who came in for a quick tyre change and rejoined the track classified 6th.
There was more to come from the pit lane camera as Lap 36 saw Mark Webber pitting for a set of hard compound tyres – since he had opted for softs in the previous three pit stops, it all but confirmed his 4 pit stop strategy as the use of the option tyre
is mandatory at least once during the course of the race. The Australian driver came out on track in third position, as a result – Would the hard compounds deliver enough performance to challenge Fernando Alonso ahead?
On track, Felipe Massa managed to get his car ahead of the Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi for 13th position. Lewis Hamilton, evidently pumped up from his poor pit stop, looked to make amends on track as he posted the fastest time of the lap.
Fernando Alonso came in to the pits in the next lap and took on a set of hard compound tyres – Importantly for the Ferrari camp, the Spaniard came out two seconds ahead of Mark Webber in 3rd position. However, with the playing field leveled as
far as tyre choice was concerned, Webber still had an advantage since his tyres were already up to race temperature – A lunge for position was imminent, soon.
Nick Heidfeld came into the pits for his last stop as Webber set the fastest time for the lap – We definitely had a race on. Moreover, what it did was give Sebastian Vettel more breathing space as Alonso had to first defend his own position before making
a potential bid for the race lead.
37 laps of the race were completed as the majority of the frontrunners had already completed their fourth and final pit stop for the day – We were in for an interesting final 20 laps of the race, indeed.
Article to be continued in Part 11 of Turkish Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights
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