Sebastian Vettel continued his dominance of F1 with a comanding victory at the Istanbul Park in Turkey.
Vettel made a great start, but behind him Rosberg brilliantly jumped Mark Webber. Behind the front two Hamilton and Webber were fighting, but Lewis went wide, letting past Webber, Fernando Alonso and his team mate Jenson Button. In the midfield, Vitaly Petrov tried to pass Schumacher on the inside in the last straight, went wide, and Michael hit him trying to get around the corner.
On lap 5, Webber, using his DRS out-dragged Nico Rosberg, easily re-taking second place. A lap later, Hamilton, again using his DRS, got onto the inside of Button, and after tussling through the last few corners, the main straight, and the first corner, Hamilton took Button. The McLaren drivers were not done, by the time they had got around to the next lap, Button closed the gap using his DRS, and with a better drive off the last corner, overtook him into the first corner.
Ahead of them, Fernando Alonso, again DRS-ing, eased past Nico Rosberg to take a great third place. During the McLarens fighting, Felipe Massa began to close in on them, and on lap nine, the Brazilian took Lewis. However, the two drivers went straight into the pits. Massa went in first, but left second, after the McLaren team produced a great pit stop to squeeze him ahead of the Ferrari driver. The two drivers drove side by side in the pitlane, with Massa eventually slipping behind Lewis. Other drivers and teams followed the McLarens and Ferraris into the pits, with Vettel, Alonso and Rosberg all pitting.
Further down the grid, the Renaults tried to battle each other in the final corners. Heidfeld had the inside line through the first corner, but Petrov, following Barrichello, tried to push him wide, nearly pushing the German into the pitlane. Just ahead of them, Rubens drove up behind Michael Schumacher, and eased through the inside. The German was not out of the wars yet, as Kamui Kobayashi and Adrian Sutil both jumped him after the DRS straight.
Back at the front, Button, after holding up Vettel, pitted several laps after the other front runners, looking at a three-stopper. Behind Vettel, Webber was second, closing on his teammate. Then, they were followed by Rosberg, Alonso, Hamilton, and Massa. Soon; however, Ferando and Lewis soon jumped Rosberg as the Mercedes seemed to lack race pace. By lap 21, Massa was still chasing. He momenterally lead him before the DRS zone, then while Rosberg used his DRS, he managed to regain his position over Massa. A lap later, Massa eased past Rosberg, on the DRS straight. Behind them, Button had cruised up to the back of the fight, and while Massa was taking Rosberg, Jenson followed went through the Ferrari sized gap, and held his position through the last chicane. With Jenson right behind Massa, it wasn't long until he was a able to use his DRS, and edge past him.
At the very front, Vettel had pumped in several very fast, important laps, meaning that when he pitted in lap 25 he had plenty of clean air when he rejoined the race track. Behind the leader, Alonso began to close the gap on Webber, and by lap 30, Fernando had managed to ease around the outside of the twelth corner, pushing the Spaniard upto second. This left the situation - First Vettel, Second Alonso Third Webber, Fourth Hamilton, Fifth Petrov, Sixth Massa, Seventh Button, Eight Rosberg, Ninth Heidfeld, Tenth Buemi.
The action continued on lap 35. Button, after several laps of trying, managed to use his DRS to overtake Massa. Button's teammate was having less luck. He pitted, but had a problem with the front right wheel nut. Then after waiting for valuable seconds, he had to wait for even longer while Massa entered his pit box.
By lap 47, it was time for more pitstops. Webber and Alonso started the trend, and was soon followed by everyone bar Jenson Button. This left Jenson in fourth behind the two Red Bulls with Alonso sandwiched in between them. Button was followed by Hamilton, Rosberg, Buemi, Petrov, Heidfeld and Kobayashi.
Behind the podium, Hamilton was closing in on a Button who had older tyres. On lap 50, Lewis easily caught him, and with little fight from Button, easily took his teammate. Next on Button's radar was Nico Rosberg who was easily drawing in Button.
With six laps remaining, Webber was closing in on Alonso on each lap. With the his DRS, Webber caught and passed Alonso, skillfully holding second through the final chicane, and down the pit straight.
With four laps left, the action was to be found out of the points in 11th-12th-13th. Around turn 12, Schumacher managed to push himself past Alguersuari for eleventh. Massa tried to pull himself alongside, making it three abrest around the last corner. Massa, getting a better line, managed to outgrip Alguersuari into twelth, then with a Schumacher slipstream, Massa squeezed through a Ferrari sized hole in the first corner to take eleventh. Just ahead of them, Nick Heidfeld had overtook Buemi to take seventh. Further ahead, Button's decision to do three stops was not looking better. Rosberg had easily gained on the Brit, and again in the DRS zone, he eased past Button. At the very front, Vettel's only trouble was traffic, as he easily pushed himself through the back markers. He soon however, had little trouble, and he eased to his third victory of the year. Webber made it a Red Bull one-two, and Alonso took an impressive third
Race Results
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 2
3 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
4 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 2
5 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 10
6 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
7 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 12
8 - Viatly Petrov - Renault - 20
9 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso 16
10 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 23
11 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
12 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 17
13 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 15
14 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - N
15 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
16 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 21
17 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - N
18 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 13
19 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 11
20 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 35
21 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - N
22 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 26
R - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 31
DNS - Timo Glock - Virgin - 14
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