Another race, another masterclass from Sebastian Vettel. Vettel's early dominance would have played on no one’s mind more so than Mark Webber who would have been contemplating, as Alonso did in 07 and Barrichello in 2000-2004, how to beat the world’s fastest racing driver.
The weekend seemed to start OK for Red Bull’s “number 2”, a wet race was forecast and a wet first practice allowed everyone to try Pirelli’s new wet tyres for the first time. All that was, except Sebastian Vettel who suffered a mighty crash exiting turn 8 ruling him out of second practice.
Things started to get away from Mark after that. A dry race and qualifying was forecast, that added to the fact that his teammate went and set a blistering time to go fastest in morning practice and would have been even faster had it not been for traffic. Into qualifying Mark still thought he had a shot at pole, in the same way a GP2 driver in tenth place in the feature race has a chance of pole. In Q3 though, the Red Bulls needed just one run to secure the front row of the grid crucially saving a set of tyres in the process. Four tenths was the gap between pole man Seb and teammate Webber. But this is Mark Webber. He doesn’t roll over for anyone, especially not Seb (nor Helmut Marko for the matter).
The start from P2, the first of the grid slots on the dirty side of the grid, was always going to leave him third into the first few corners but that was no worry, Rosberg could be dispatched into turn 12 at the end of the lap. Not so. Lewis, who amazingly had got away well from fourth, tried round the outside of Mark into turn 3, mark kept his foot in and Lewis went wide dropping behind his teammate and Fernando Alonso.
Fending off Lewis had lost him his chance to get Rosberg early. As soon as DRS was activated he’d have a great shot at getting Nico into 12. The DRS positioning in Istanbul made overtaking a tad easier than at other races. Such was the straight line speed of the Mercedes however that Webber had to wait and wait for his chance. By the time he got through, Seb was already safe from the undercut fresh tyres give. His race was now all about securing the one-two for the team, the one-two they should have had last year.
It soon became clear who he was racing, Alonso and Button. Make that Alonso. Jenson was three stopping and in having to look after the tyres was losing too much time. He would later find out the hard way that the Pirellis degrade over time however you drive.
Back to the Webber/Alonso fight. Ferrari had brought new upgrades across the Bosphurus and they seemed to be paying off. Fernando had easily dispatched Rosberg, Ross Brawn later revealed that Mercedes hadn’t got their race simulation sorted on Friday. Having got rid of Rosberg, Alonso set his sights on Webber and duly got past with the help of DRS. A slightly elongated fourth stop for Webber allowed Alonso to stay ahead. Mark however was on fresh tyres and loving the grip. Fernando was struggling slightly on used tyres, this explains why he was quicker than Webber previously when the tyres were opposite on each car. Mark made his move into, you guessed it, turn 12. And so he stood on the podium, a step to the right of where he really wanted to be he could console himself with the fact he has now recorded the fastest lap three races on the spin, a thing Seb likes to do.
It seems the World Champion’s cage is starting to rattle slightly.
Credit: The F1 Times (www.thef1times.com)
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