F1-Blog

The Turkish GP again did not disappoint. We had all sorts of drama in the race, both on and off the track.

The Ferrari’s where surprisingly not as far ahead of the McLaren’s as we thought they would be, and the BMW-Sauber’s where miles off the pace. So it seems to have all moved at the top.

The race started with the McLaren cars on the harder tyre compounds and the Ferrari’s running the softer option tyres.

The first corner saw Lewis get the jump on Heikki, and took the second spot, whilst Heikki and Kimi had a small coming together, causing Heikki to pit for a puncture.

At the back of the field Fisichella was far too hot into the first corner, and out braked himself, launching the Force India over the Williams of Nakajima, causing a retirement for both drivers, and a couple of laps under the safety car to clean up the mess.

The race settled into a nice rhythm, with Massa leading by just a second or two over Lewis, and Kimi and Robert a little further back, as the two leaders were constantly quicker than the rest of the pack.

First to pit was the Renault of Fernando, showing that the Q3 pace, was down to light load’s in the car, but more of a surprise was that Lewis pitted shortly after, this showed that the McLaren team were running a very strange three stop race strategy. It turns out that Bridgestone were so worried about rear tyre wear on the MP4-23 that they forced the team to run three stops on race day.

This forced Lewis to drive out of his skin, and he caught and then overtook Massa in the lead, and then proceeded to romp off into the distance. Unfortunately for the Brit though, he could not make up the 25 seconds required to actually challenge for the win, even though the McLaren was clearly the most hooked up car on the track at that moment in time.

He did however manage to come in and go out on his third stop, and stay ahead of Kimi, but then seemed to struggle on the soft option compound tyres in the McLaren, and could not catch Massa, and in fact was struggling to keep Kimi at bay.

Further back, the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica was certainly not in the same league as either the McLaren of Ferrari’s this weekend, and as such they finished fourth and fifth.

Fernando showed that the Renault is certainly improving, and took sixth spot with a trouble free race, behind him was Mark Webber in the Red Bull with a strong performance from the Australian.

Nico brought the sole Williams in for the last point, and beat the factory Toyota drivers who finished down in tenth and thirteenth with a poor race day, after both showing pace in Qualifying.

Jenson again out paced his more experienced team mate and took eleventh, with Rubens finishing fourteenth on his 257th race.

Heikki brought his McLaren in twelfth after his problems at the start of the race, and showed that he is not afraid to pass the opposition, in fact if the team had have fuelled the McLaren to the end of the race, and not forced him to stop with seven laps remaining he would have made the points positions, a good strong recovery drive.

So we now head to Monaco, where historically the McLaren’s are stronger than the Ferrari’s, as they usually are at the Canadian race that follows.

So can McLaren take the fight to the Ferrari’s on the tracks that usually suit the cars, or can Ferrari bring a car that likes the tight twisty Monaco, and the bumps and humps in Canada. The season is only getting better.

For the third year in a row, Felipe Massa has popped his Ferrari onto the pole slot. He has won from first on the grid for the last two years, so looking good for the Brazilian in tomorrows race.

Heikki made a great comeback from his smash in Spain to take the second spot on the grid. Lewis took the third spot on the grid with a great lap using the hard compound tyres on his fast run, making the pace of the McLaren look good, if not quite the match of the Ferrari.

Fourth spot went to Kimi, with a Ferrari that was certainly looking a handful, especially towards the end of the lap, so the Finn may well be running a heavier car.

The BMW Sauber’s did not look as quick as they have in the previous races, with Robert Kubica taking fifth and Nick Heidfeld struggling back in ninth.

The Red Bull’s and Renault’s are showing that their pace in Spain was real, with Webber in sixth, and Fernando in seventh.

The Toyota of Trulli did not seem to come on form in the Q3 session after both Toyota’s being quick in the earlier sessions, but Trulli took the eight spot.

David Coulthard chose not to run in Q3, resulting in him saving tyres and taking the tenth spot.

With cars so closely matched, and a track that seems to work equally as well with the understeer style of Filipe and the oversteer of Lewis, as well as genuine overtaking opportunities it could be an interesting race tomorrow.

For years Sony had the right’s to the F1 game’s, so we only ever saw ‘arcady’ games make it onto their own platforms.

However today it’s been announced that CodeMasters have picked up the license, and it’s internal race driver : GRID team will be doing the game, that’s good news, as CodeMasters have a long history of decent racing games (TOCA, McRae, GRID)

Centre to all of their plans is to setup a Formula 1 Online community for the games and players.

"As a world-leading creator of driving games, this alliance with Formula 1 is the jewel in Codemasters’ racing crown and creates an undisputed segment champion,"

"Formula 1 has gone with the best, the segment leader. It has gone to the home of the EGO Engine for quality; it has gone to the company that can host Formula 1 Online, to the company that is streaking away from the pack." - Rod Cousens CodeMasters.

Let’s hope they can re-create the Geoff Crammond glory days of the F1GP games.

Istanbul is another of the Hermann Tilke new tracks, with the exception that it is a counter clockwise track.

Filipe Massa has enjoyed the track in the past, winning here twice since it’s opening race in 2005, and Ferrari have typically been strong here.

The track temperature will again be high this weekend, and the teams will almost all be bringing new aero updates to the car to help with this and also to improve performance, we may even see some of the car take the Ferrari nose hole concept on.

It’s also the fifth race of the season, so teams are allowed to use a new gearbox at this race, and they were probably starting to feel a little tired after the end of the Spanish weekend.

The Ferrari team will again be the team to beat, and are likely to be fastest here all weekend, however it will be interesting to see if Filipe has got the TC issues he seemed to be having under control, especially at turn 8.

McLaren were again back to the front of the chasing pack last race alongside BMW, so it’s good news that Heikki has been cleared to drive. Lewis will want to get back to winning ways as well, so expect them to be strong. Let’s hope they get the qualifying strategy right this weekend, as it hurt the team starting so far back last race. McLaren have also released the result’s of the Heikki investigation saying -

It has been established that, owing to a process fault during manufacture, the outer clamp surface of the wheel was given a clear lacquer coating. As a consequence of this fault, the clamp load that attached the wheel was not to specification.

In running, the consequent loss of load caused the wheel to fret and distort, leading to its eventual failure.

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and the wheel supplier have now established new procedures designed to prevent a re-occurrence of this issue. McLaren Press Statement.

BMW will be in contention too, they have openly been playing with the Ferrari nose concept, and it may make an appearance, but probably needs more testing. Both drivers should go well here, and the team will certainly score points, keeping them in the constructors championship race.

As for the other teams, Toyota and Red Bull will probably still be the best of the rest behind the top 3, with Red Bull possibly just sneaking ahead of Toyota in the development race so far this season. Let’s hope their drivers have a little more luck this weekend, as both have had their fair share of race stopping problems.

Renault again could be a dark horse, they proved the new car’s speed credentials in Spain, and Fernando is certainly looking more at home again in the cockpit of the car. His young team mate seems to be starting to settle down as well, so expect them to run in the Q3 session on Saturday, and at least worry some of the teams on Sunday.

Super Aguri will not be at this event, Aguri Suzuki ended the team during the week after failing to get the money to continue. Honda were also not willing to help out, and took the cars off the team. What is going to happen to Anthony and Taku is still unknown, but it is known that Anthony is covered by clauses that links him with Honda, and after all the team was setup up for Taku, so I should think they are both safe.

So we should get a decent race, the Istanbul track is well liked, and has overtaking opportunities, plus it’s ‘back to front’ so has that to add challenge to the drivers.

See map in Google Earth!

Stats :

Fastest Lap : 1:24.770 (Juan Pablo Montoya, McLaren, 2005)
Pole Time : 1:26.797 - Kimi Raikkonen (2005)
Most Wins : 2 Filipe Massa

Link to ITV Web Simulcast for the GP and Practice/Qualifying sessions.

Broadcast Times for Turkey in UK time

First practice Friday 08:00
Second practice Friday 12:00
Qualifying Saturday 12:00
Race Sunday 13:00