Race: Flawless Button wins the Turkish GP!

On this Mother’s Day Sunday, fans were focused on the Turkish Grand Prix, the weekend’s main F1 event. For the seventh race of the season, Jenson Button with Brawn GP took yet another victory, his 6th of the 2009 season. The English driver is impressively consistent on all circuits and capitalized on a mistake by Vettel to clinch the race. The German ended up third, on the podium, but behind his teammate. Mark Webber indeed took second place. Barrichello retired while Trulli and Rosberg showcased strong performances. Alonso finished 10th, Bourdais 18th and last.

The single-seaters set off for their warm-up lap. No incidents to report. Button positions himself on the grid very much towards the clean side of the track. He already threatens Vettel and Barrichello.

The start is given and Barrichello, under pressure, completely misses it. Vettel gets off to a good start, Button follows. At the entrance of the first corner, the two Ferraris hinder each other, and Rosberg fights with Räikkönen. The German in the Williams has had a very good start. He was ninth and comes out 5th at the second corner. Behind him, Alonso tries to take advantage over Räikkönen. He gets ahead of the Ferrari, and Räikkönen loses a piece of the front wing by touching the Spaniard’s right rear tire.

Vettel is under pressure from Button and the German makes a mistake. He goes very wide and off the racing line after the S. Button takes advantage of it and Vettel loses his position. The German may have just lost the race. Meanwhile, Barrichello attempts to take 12th place from Kovalainen without succeeding.

In the 6th lap, the single-seaters slow down the pace. Fisichella, for his part, enters the pit. He has a problem and must retire. Sutil, however, continues the race.

In the 8th lap, Kovalainen is attacked by Barrichello. The Brazilian gains the advantage with a very beautiful overtaking maneuver in the winding sector, but Kovalainen, equipped with the KERS on the McLaren, regains the advantage on the straight. Barrichello attempts another overtaking maneuver two corners later. The two men make contact and Barrichello spins out. He rejoins in 17th place behind Hamilton.

After 13 laps, Barrichello battles with Glock, then Sutil. The Brazilian makes contact and damages his front wing. He pits and loses 11 seconds changing the nose. His race now seems compromised.

Between the 14th and 17th laps, all the leaders make their pit stops. Button retains the lead, ahead of Vettel, Webber, and Trulli! Massa is on pace, just like Rosberg.

On the 23rd lap, Hamilton overtakes Räikkönen. The Englishman has not yet pitted and is pushing hard to regain positions after his poor qualifying.

There are 33 laps to go and Vettel goes to work. The Red Bull driver must overtake Button as quickly as possible to optimize his strategy. Button under pressure resists for three laps.

Two laps later, Hamilton puts pressure on Piquet for 12th place. The world champion can’t find the pace. Ahead, Trulli lets Glock pass for 6th place. The man hasn’t pitted yet and doesn’t want to be hindered for his stint.

After 29 laps of the race, Heidfeld comes into the pits, as does Vettel who leaves the way clear for Button. The Brawn GP driver must push hard during the few laps’ difference with Vettel’s refueling to secure the first place. Vettel comes out behind Webber, and on hard tires, again. He will therefore make his third and final stint on softs. Glock also comes into the pits.

In the next lap, it’s Piquet who refuels. He will be followed by Hamilton. The Englishman has made a gap and stays ahead of Piquet. The Brazilian needs to prove he deserves his spot at Renault and attacks Hamilton. Piquet drafts perfectly, managing to overtake Hamilton with a slight contact and on the outside. Hamilton takes back the inside, but Piquet manages to keep the Englishman behind the R29. The Renault driver holds onto the 16th place.

Alonso for the 8th place is unable to catch up with Kubica and prefers to let the RS27 engine cool down, as advised by his engineer. At the same time, Hamilton struggles and gets overtaken by Buemi. The soft tires are not performing well on the MP4.

There are 18 laps remaining and Rosberg comes into the pit. He is fighting for the podium against a very competitive Williams. Both FW31s are performing very well. Nakajima, who is making only one stop, is just ahead of his teammate after his refueling. They are both in the points.

Alonso also comes into the pits; he is 12th. Barrichello comes in as well, as does Massa who was 5th.

On the 44th lap, Nakajima goes through the pits. He encounters an issue with his front left wheel and loses some time. He will rejoin in 12th position ahead of Hamilton and Kovalainen.

Vettel comes into the pit for the second time. He goes back out definitively behind his teammate. Two Red Bulls for the podium. There are 10 laps remaining, Barrichello is still at the back of the grid and with his gearbox issue, he prefers to retire to avoid a penalty at the next GP. First retirement of a Brawn GP since the team’s creation and 7 races. The gearbox is to blame.

In the final laps, Button and the Red Bull team are monitoring their reliability as everyone seems to dial down to save their mechanics. The engineers are clear: « Save your car », they ask Vettel. The engines and gearboxes can indeed be used for the upcoming Grand Prix. In fact, drivers must use a total of 8 engines this year. Most have already used 4 or 5 as we are at the 7th GP out of 17. The end of the season might be problematic in terms of reliability.

The final lap for Button is just a formality. The Englishman crosses under the checkered flag at a slow pace, recording another victory, his 6th of the season. Webber takes second place at the expense of Vettel and his few errors during the race. Trulli is 4th and proves that Toyota has not abandoned the development of the TF109. Rosberg is also very strong with the Williams and takes 5th place after his very good start.

The Ferraris are 6th and 9th. Only Massa scores points while Alonso, starting 8th, finishes only 10th due to a blatant lack of grip. His teammate, Piquet, is 16th after making a second pit stop on a strategy that was supposed to have only one. Bourdais is 18th and the last to cross the finish line. His teammate, Sébastien Buemi, finishes 15th.

Results of the Turkish Grand Prix – Sunday, June 7, 2009: