Istanbul Park, 30 May

Celebrating Scuderia Ferrari’s eight hundredth Grand Prix in glory was always going to be difficult with Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso starting from eighth and twelfth places on the grid respectively and so it proved, as The Brazilian came home seventh and the Spaniard one place behind his team-mate. The race was dominated by McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton winning from Jenson Button, but only after the two leading Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel collided, forcing the German to retire and the Australian to move down to third for the final podium position. Today’s result sees Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro lie in third place in the Constructor’s Championship.



In very high temperatures, the cars formed up on the grid in a heat haze and when the lights went out, Webber led from pole, Vettel briefly got ahead of Button, but the McLaren retook his starting position of second on the opening lap and then began closing right up to the lead Red Bull. The two F10s were still in their original starting positions. Behind the leading three on lap 3, came Button, Schumacher, Rosberg, Kubica, Massa, Petrov, Sutil, Kobayashi, Alonso, De La Rosa, Alguersuari, Liuzzi, Barrichello, Trulli, Kovalainen, Senna, Glock, Chandock, Di Grassi, Hulkenberg and Buemi last, having already pitted to change tyres after an opening lap incident. The gaps around the two Ferraris were fairly constant in the early stages — Felipe trailing Kubica by 0.7s and Fernando 0.6 behind eleventh placed Kobayashi. The duel for the lead was still going on, Hamilton only 0.4 behind Webber, with Vettel a further two seconds down.

Kobayashi was the first to pit to change tyres, coming in on lap 10, thus promoting Fernando to eleventh, but only briefly as the Spaniard made his stop next time round. Petrov, Sutil and De La Rosa all changed tyres on lap 12. Felipe pitted on lap 13, as did Kubica and Liuzzi. Vettel came in from third on lap 14, followed by Schumacher and Alguersuari. The two leaders came in together on lap 15 and left in the same order, with Hamilton not having the best pit stop and dropping behind Vettel. Button was the last of the lead group to change tyres on lap 17, which meant that the newly established order on lap 18 was Webber, Vettel, with Hamilton trying to make up for his poor stop, then Button, Schumacher, Rosberg, Kubica, with Felipe still in eighth, while the run of pit stops saw Fernando move up into the points in tenth place. Both Ferrari men were having lonely races, not particularly close to the car ahead of them, nor threatened by anyone behind.
All the excitement was at the front, as the top three were all within 1.3 seconds, Webber, almost a second ahead of team-mate Vettel, who had Hamilton breathing down his neck. In fourth place, Button was just over a second behind the other McLaren and then came a big 25 second gap to Schumacher in fifth place, who had his Mercedes team-mate Rosberg behind him. This had an effect on Felipe’s race as he trailed Kubica who was stuck behind the second of the Mercedes: the three of them and Petrov in the second Renault were in a train, with Alonso 10th over two seconds down on this group. Lap 28 marked the halfway distance by which time Fernando had closed the gap to Petrov to 0.6, as Rosberg continued to slow those directly behind him.
At the front, the order was still Webber, Vettel, Hamilton, with Button not far behind, but at this point, the interest switched to skies as it seemed there was a strong chance of rain making its first appearance of the weekend. With 20 laps remaining, Felipe had dropped back a bit from seventh placed Kubica, while Fernando was now glued to Petrov’s gearbox. There was drama on lap 40 at the front, as Vettel tried to pass Webber, the two Red Bulls collided and spun off. Vettel retired immediately, but Webber continued in third place behind Hamilton and Button who now led for McLaren. This promoted Felipe and Fernando to seventh and ninth respectively. Webber pitted for a new nose as a few drops of rain appeared but he still maintained third spot. With ten laps remaining the McLaren duo produced a spectacular fight as Button the 2009 world champion got ahead of Hamilton, the 2008 title holder, but it did not last long and the places were reversed again a bit further on the lap.
Having pursued Petrov all race long, Fernando finally got past him to move up to seventh on lap 54.

At the flag, the order was Hamilton, Button, Webber on the podium, followed by Schumacher, Rosberg, Kubica, Felipe, Fernando, Sutil and Kobayashi tenth for the final point.