McLaren one-two in Turkey

The McLaren Mercedes team scored a dominant one-two in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix as the Red Bulls collided whilst leading. Mark Webber eventually finished third ahead of Schumacher and Rosberg.

Both Red Bulls of Webber and Vettel got off the line well and led the field to Turn 1 while the McLarens of Hamilton and Button had to fend off the assaults of Michael Schumacher. Hamilton did well to stay ahead of the German and managed to reclaim P2 from Vettel a few corners later.

He then set off in pursuit of Webber and traded fastest times with the Red Bull driver. The two leaders were matched on pace and there was nothing to chose between the two of them in the first part of the race. Vettel held on to third place and successfully kept Button at bay while his teammate was coming under a lot of pression from Hamilton.

Meanwhile, further down the field, the first pit stops took place as early as lap 11. Having failed to make any progress at the start, Fernando Alonso pitted on lap 12. Petrov, Sutil and de la Rosa followed suit on the following.

The Briton was all over the rear of the leading RB6 on lap 14 but couldn’t find a way past and the two of them pitted at the end of lap 15. A slow stop for the McLaren driver meant he rejoined the race behind Webber and Vettel who had pitted a lap earlier. The battle then resumed with Hamilton trying to move past the German on lap 18. He couldn’t make it stick and stayed in third place behind the two Red Bulls.

At the midway point, the top four – made up of both Red Bulls and McLarens – was covered by three seconds. Michael Schumacher was a distant fifth, three seconds clear of his teammate Nico Rosberg. The younger Mercedes driver was tailed by Kubica, Massa, Petrov and Alonso.

Vettel slightly upped the pace in the second part of the race and put some pressure on the leader with Hamilton still hot on his heels. The German made a move on lap 40 but the two Red Bulls collided. Vettel retired while Webber had to pit for a new nose. As they messed it up, Hamilton and Button took the lead of the race. Webber rejoined in third.

The two McLarens came wheel to wheel at the end of lap 48 when Button pulled a move on Hamilton. He briefly took the lead but Hamilton reclaimed it a few corners later and managed to pull slightly away. Button then settled for 2nd which meant Hamilton took his first win of the season.

Webber joined them on the podium. Michael Schumacher finished fourth ahead of Rosberg and Kubica. Felipe Massa was seventh with his teammate Fernando Alonso finishing eighth after starting from twelfth and having a good scrap with Renault’s Vitaly Petrov. Sutil and Kobayashi scored the last points.

None of the HRT and Lotus made it to the finish line. While Senna and Chandhok retired in the final part of the race, both Lotus retired shortly after the midway point because of hydraulics problems.