Turkish Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights (Part 11)
Sebastian Vettel seemed to be cruising; an unsurprising spectacle this season so far. The World Champion’s lead over Fernando Alonso in second place was now a comfortable 25 seconds. However, it couldn’t entirely be attributed to the Red Bull’s pace. The
Ferrari in second place not only had to worry about maintaining its own position but was also vary of the Mark Webber threat in its rear view mirrors. Also, after making his fourth pit stop of the day, the hard compound tyres were taking their time to warm
up.
Elsewhere on track, Nico Rosberg managed to overtake Rubens Barrichello for 8th position. Alonso seemed to respond to the Red Bull threat and pushed harder; setting the fastest time for Lap 38 in the process.
Vitantonio Liuzzi dived into the pits for his fourth and last scheduled pit stop of the race. The Hispania Racing car rejoined the race track and dropped to last in the running order to P23. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa had closed the gap on Michael Schumacher’s
Mercedes and was in a position to challenge for 12th position.
Reverting back to the pit lane camera, Kamui Kobayashi made his third stop of the race. As the Japanese driver opted for a set of hard compound tyres, it was evident that he was going for a three pit stop strategy.
The race headed to Lap 40. Rubens Barrichello was evidently relying on every ounce of experience at his disposal as he tried to hold off Nick Heidfeld’s Renault. The latter was comfortably faster than the Brazilian and looked certain to take 9th
spot; it was arguably a matter of time.
Moments later, Felipe Massa was finally able to get by Michael Schumacher – No love lost between former teammates, hopefully!
Jenson Button and Jaime Alguersuari made their final pit stops respectively. The McLaren came back on track in 7th while the Toro Rosso was classified 14th. Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap of the race, yet again. The only potential
concern was; in his haste to set himself apart from Mark Webber and close the gap on Sebastian Vettel in the lead, the Ferrari was running risk of wearing out its final set of tyres – Arguably, playing right into the hands of the Red Bulls.
Article to be continued in Part 12 of Turkish Grand Prix 2011: Raceday - Formula One Highlights
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