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At the fourth attempt, Fernando Alonso
(above) secured his and Ferrari’s first
podium of the year, after the Spaniard
finished third in yesterday's Turkish Grand
Prix behind the Red Bull Racing one-two of
Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. |
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At the fourth attempt,
Fernando Alonso secured his and Ferrari’s first podium
of the year, after the Spaniard finished third in
yesterday's Turkish Grand Prix behind the Red Bull
Racing one-two of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.
Felipe Massa had a more complicated day and after
looking as though he might have challenged the fourth
placed McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, problems with pit
stops and traffic saw him end up just outside the points
in eleventh place.
After another difficult Saturday qualifying, Fernando
found himself as usual in fifth place on the clean side
of the grid on row 3, while Felipe was two rows further
back in tenth spot. When the lights went out, Vettel
shot into the lead from pole, while Rosberg got the jump
on Webber to go second and Fernando had moved up to
fourth. Then came Button, Hamilton, Schumacher and
Petrov and on lap 2, Felipe got past Heidfeld to go
ninth. Schumacher pitted after a collision with Petrov
and so the Brazilian was now running seventh having also
passed Petrov.
On lap 5, Webber got by Rosberg to go second, 4.4 behind
his team-mate Vetel and Fernando was right on the
Mercedes’ gearbox, occasionally running alongside him
and getting past to take third place on lap 7, two
seconds behind Webber. Meanwhile as the two McLarens
fought among themselves, it allowed Felipe to close
right up to Button who had been passed by Hamilton.
Petrov pitted for tyres on lap 8 in what was clearly
going to be a busy day for everyone in pit lane. Lap 9
saw the Brazilian’s Ferrari get ahead of Hamilton and
then both men followed one another down pit lane for a
tyre change, with the Englishman just managing to get
away from his garage ahead of the Ferrari.
Lap 11 saw Fernando move up to third, but he, Rosberg,
Webber, Heidfeld, Barrichello and Sutil all pitted at
the same time. Next time round the race leader pitted,
as did Di Resta and Maldonaldo. Button was the last of
the leaders to pit on lap 13, so that the two Red Bulls
led again from Fernando, while Felipe was sixth, behind
Hamilton and Rosberg. Fernando seemed unable to close
the gap to second placed Webber, but Felipe was getting
closer and closer to Rosberg in the Mercedes. On lap 20,
Felipe got past but the German got past him again later
in the lap in what was the most intriguing duel at this
point. Hamilton made his second tyre change, as did
Webber and Felipe again passed Rosberg, this time making
it stick so he was now fourth behind Webber, while
Fernando had moved to second. Rosberg and Heidfeld then
pitted together on lap 22. On lap 23 Felipe could not
hold off Button’s McLaren, dropping a place and pitting
for new tyres almost behind his team-mate. While
Fernando maintained third, Felipe now dropped back to
seventh, as Vettel came in for his second stop from the
lead on lap 25.
When Button changed tyres on lap 26, the stop did not go
smoothly, dropping him to seventh, promoting Felipe to
sixth, as the Brazilian set about chasing Petrov in the
Renault. Then, on lap 30, Webber’s lap times slowed and
Fernando was able to get past to go second, while Felipe
was having a tough time fighting off seventh placed
Button. The Spaniard was now 8.8 seconds behind Vettel
and 1.6 ahead of Webber. Felipe was the meat in a
sandwich behind Petrov and ahead of Button.
Hamilton in fourth was the first of the leaders to make
his third stop but it did not go well as there was a
problem with a front wheel. Petrov and Felipe also came
in on this lap, with Webber changing tyres on lap 35.
One lap later, Fernando took on another set of tyres,
while his team-mate had dropped to 13th in the run of
pit stops. Heidfeld pitted from fifth on lap 37,
promoting Felipe to twelfth.
Button made his third stop from fourth on lap 39 with
the race leader coming in on lap 40, as did Buemi in the
Toro Rosso from sixth place. Vettel’s stop meant that
Fernando was just 7.1 seconds behind the Red Bull, with
a 3 second advantage over Webber, while Felipe was now
back up to ninth, 1.4 behind Heidfeld in the Renault.
Rosberg was the first driver to make a fourth stop,
coming in from fifth place on lap 45, followed in by
Webber who was another driver to suffer a slow tyre
change. Petrov and Schumacher also pitted and obviously
covering Webber, Ferrari brought Fernando in for fresh
tyres on lap 46 followed in by Hamilton and Felipe and
this time the Brazilian’s right rear wheel would not go
on properly costing him precious seconds. One lap later
and the race leader made his fourth stop and although he
kept the lead, it was only 6.2 seconds ahead of
Fernando. The Turkish GP had effectively now come down
to a ten lap sprint to the flag on fresh tyres. On lap
49, the Red Bull to Ferrari gap was just 5.9. Hamilton
was flying and passed team-mate Button to go fourth at
this point and Webber was 1.1 behind the Spanish Ferrari
driver and lapping faster so that with eight laps to go
the gap was now 0.8. Felipe’s pit stop problem meant he
was back down in thirteenth spot.
At the end of lap 51, Webber caught and passed Fernando,
with Alonso fighting back so that the two men were
running side by side for a while. On lap 53, Felipe
moved up to 12th when he passed Schumacher in the
Mercedes, but the German fought back to retake the
position and then both men got past Alguersuari. Then
the Toro Rosso man fought back and retook the German who
then passed him again. Overtaking is definitely easier
this year!
From then to the flag at the end of lap 58, the order
among the front runners did not change much. Behind the
podium trio, Hamilton was fourth for McLaren ahead of
Rosberg in the Mercedes, Button sixth in the other
McLaren and the Renault duo of Heidfeld and Petrov
seventh and eighth having both relegated Buemi in the
Toro Rosso to ninth. In tenth, ahead of Felipe,
Kobayashi took the final point for Sauber. Fernando and
Felipe are fifth and sixth respectively in the Drivers’
classification, while the Scuderia is still third in the
Constructors’ Championship.
Stefano
Domenicali: “It’s been a
very long time since we last saw one of our drivers on
the podium and, finally, we were able to. Fernando drove
a very nice race, to crown a great weekend on his part:
he did not put a foot wrong and was aggressive when he
needed to be and prudent when he had to manage the
situation. I am very sorry for Felipe, who had every
possibility of also getting a good result. We had
already seen in the three previous races that, in the
race, the 150º Italia seemed to be the more beautiful
sister of the one seen on Saturday afternoon in
qualifying, but for one reason or another, in the first
three grands prix, we never managed to make the most of
all its potential. We were competitive for long periods
and if Fernando had not been stuck behind Rosberg for a
few laps after the start, he could have even put Vettel
under more pressure. We must definitely not get carried
away with this third place: the road is still very long
and there is still a very long way to go to where we
want to be. At least we have shown that we have started
off down the right road.”
Fernando Alonso: “I am pleased with
this result, which is down to three weeks of hard work
from the entire team at Maranello and at the track this
weekend. We had not started this Grand Prix on the right
foot, after having quite a few problems on Friday, but
then we moved forward and it was great to be back
fighting for the top places. We had come so close to the
podium already in Malaysia and in China and we managed
to jump onto it, but this is only a first step: we must
continue in this direction. Given the shape we were in
at the start of this season, this is a great finish. The
next three or four races will be crucial. At 99% I could
not have fought with Vettel, but the remaining 1% went
when I was stuck behind Rosberg for too long: maybe I
could have put him in difficulty, forcing him to push
even more. In the end, Webber passed me because he had
the benefit of a new set of tyres, while I had none
left. I know it seems strange having to stop eleven laps
from the finish, but it was getting hard to keep the car
on track and there was a risk of ruining everything.
There is more overtaking, but I think that has more to
do with the different behaviour of the tyres rather than
the moveable rear wing. It’s true that the gap in the
classification is very wide, but there are still so many
points up for grabs: there is certainly no need to give
up.”
Felipe Massa: “Everything happened to
me and I was not able to get the result that was within
my grasp. It’s a shame, because the car was competitive
and the pace was very good. We did the first stop at the
right time, but already at that moment, I lost the place
I had just taken off Hamilton. Then I also had problems
at the third and fourth pit stops: we have to all work
together to improve this element of the race, which is
becoming really very important. I was always fighting
with other drivers, which meant I was unable to get the
most out of the tyres, as Fernando was indeed able to do
and he definitely had a cleaner race than mine. The
positive thing about this weekend is the improvement in
performance of the car: we had a bit more aerodynamic
downforce and also greater speed on the straights. It’s
an encouraging sign, but we have to continue moving in
this direction, introducing new parts already in
Barcelona.”
Pat Fry: “Mixed emotions and feelings
at the end of a very intense race, which featured a
large number of pit stops. On the one hand there is the
satisfaction of having a driver on the podium again and
on the other, there is disappointment at not getting the
result that was also within our grasp with Felipe, whose
race was ruined by a series of problems during the pit
stops. From a performance point of view, I would say we
were competitive in some parts of the race, especially
on the softer tyres. In the final duel with Webber, we
paid the price for him having a new set of hard tyres
while we only had ones that had already been used.
Felipe was nearly always in traffic and was penalised
through losing time in his pit stops: this operation is
becoming ever more crucial and everyone involved has to
be perfect in order to do it well. We will have to work
on it, as well as continuing to push on the development
of the car, because the gap to make up is very big,
especially in qualifying.”
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