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In the words of second place finisher Mark Webber, Jenson Button was “on another planet” today as he stormed to another crushing victory in the Turkish Grand Prix.

Starting in second place on the dusty side of the track, Jenson stayed behind pole sitter Sebastian Vettel through the first lap until turn 9 when Vettel ran wide.  That was all the opportunity Button needed to take the lead and from then on he drove a perfect race.

Sebastian Vettel managed to close in on Button in his second stint but couldn’t get past and Red Bull’s choice to keep him on a two stop strategy saw team mate Mark Webber pass him during his second pit stop.

Rubens Barrichello had a bad start losing 10 places off the grid due to a clutch problem.  His day went from bad to worse when, after a great battle with Heikki Kovalainen and several attempts at putting his car in places it wouldn’t fit, he retired on lap 47 with a gearbox problem – the first Brawn retirement of the season.

Despite finishing 13th, a smiling Lewis Hamilton “thoroughly enjoyed the race”:

It was quite an uneventful race but I actually enjoyed myself this afternoon.  I was very heavy at the start but I just pushed and pushed.  That’s why I can smile – because I think I drove to my full potential.  The most important thing is for us to keep our heads up and to keep pushing.

There has been a big change in Hamilton’s attitude since the beginning of the season.  After the controversy of Australia, Lewis’s post race interviews were monosyllabic and he looked very unhappy with himself and his team.  Now,  he seems to be enjoying racing again.  It is as if Button and Hamilton have switched positions this year.  Last year it was Jenson that was always putting a positive spin on his team’s terrible performance.

Now that Lewis has given up all hope of retaining the Championship he can relax and concentrate on developing and getting the most out of his car.

2009 Turkish Grand Prix Race Results

Image: Brawn GP

The FIA now publishes the weights of each car after qualifying on Saturday.  Those cars that make it through to the final qualifying session must use the fuel they qualified with while the rest of the field may refuel before the race.

Below is a graph showing the actual top ten qualifying times as well as those times adjusted for the weight of fuel each car is carrying.  The graph assumes a standard lap time cost of 0.3 seconds per 10kg of fuel.

From these weights we can see that pole sitter Vettel is fueled lighter than Button alongside him while on the second row Barrichello is fueled lighter than the Red Bull of Mark Webber.  This could be good news for both Button and Webber tomorrow as their adjusted times are quicker than the cars alongside them.

Massa’s hopes for another victory look even more remote when we see that his team mate Kimi Raikkonen outqualified him despite carrying more fuel.

The one man that looks very out of place is Fernando Alonso.  His eighth place grid position was only possible because he was fueled lighter than anyone else on the grid.  He can expect a challenge from Rosberg and Kubica during the race.

2009 Turkish Grand Prix car weights

Image: Renault

Sebastian Vettel has claimed his second pole position of the season in qualifying for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.

The German’s time of 1:28.316 was enough to take the number one grid slot from Brawn GP’s Jenson Button.

Vettel’s team mate Mark Webber briefly had the fastest time in Q3 but will start behind Vettel tomorow on the second row, alongside Rubens Barrichello.

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton missed out on getting through to the second qualifying session for the second time in a row.  While the team had been cautiously optimistic about their chances in Turkey this weekend, Hamilton seemed to lack confidence and struggled for grip in the twitchy MP4-24.  He will start from 16th on the grid.

Lewis Hamilton said afterwards:

Our car seems to have got slower relative to the others as the grip has gone down on the track.  I pushed as hard as I could today but I just had no grip out there.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil made it to Q2 for the second time in a row and he will start from 15th on the grid tomorrow, between the two McLarens.

Despite a good performance in practice, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa will start from the fourth row of the grid behind team mate Kimi Raikkonen.  He will have a hard time making it four Turkish victories in a row from there.

The new double-decker diffuser fitted to the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld seemed to have helped a little, lifting Kubica into Q3, but the team are still firmly in the mid-field.  The Red Bull diffuser on the other hand was finally given a chance to work properly after the slow corners of Monaco and either of the Red Bull drivers could be on the podium on Sunday.

2009 Formula One Turkish Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Image: Red Bull Racing

Nico Rosberg continued his usual practice of running a light car on Friday as he set the fastest time of 1:28.952 in the first practice session for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix but it was McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen who went quickest in P2, setting a time of 1:28.841.

Fernando Alonso was second fastest, just 6 thousandths behind Kovalainen, while Robert Kubica drove his BMW, equipped with new double-diffuser, to third place, his best practice result so far this year.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel stopped on the track after just four laps with a suspected drive shaft failure and a number of drivers spun off as they found the limits of grip on the dusty Istanbul circuit.

Jenson Button, whose car was sporting a revised front wing finished 12th fastest ahead of reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton.

While Friday practice times should not be relied on as a good indicator of race pace, McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh was pleased with Kovalainen’s performance and is optimistic for a top ten grid slot in qualifying tomorrow:

It’s always nice to see you’ve set the quickest time of the day. The reality is that the timesheets don’t lie – our aim for tomorrow is to hopefully get both cars into the final session of qualifying. That’s our realistic goal.

Here are the times from the first two practice sessions:
First Practice

Second Practice

Image: McLaren

After the glamour of Monaco, Formula One heads east to Istanbul Park for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Despite not having a great motor sport tradition, the Hermann Tilke designed circuit became an instant favourite with drivers when the first race was run there in 2005.  Bernie Ecclestone called it “the best race track in the world.”

One of the few races to be run in an anti-clockwise direction (the others being Brazil and Singapore) the circuit has a varied mix of low and high-speed sections but the corner everyone talks about is the un-named turn 8, a high-speed, four-apex left-hander.  It generates the most friction of any corner on the calendar and exerts up to 5Gs on the driver’s neck.

Fernando Alonso:

Turn Eight is one of the quickest and longest left hand corners of the year. It’s really a series of corners with four apexes, although we treat it as one apex and try to be as smooth as possible with the steering inputs. We don’t touch the brake at any stage through the corner, and simply lift the throttle slightly to keep the car online. In the middle of the corner we’re doing about 260km/h and you can really feel the g-forces on your body.

Renault will be bringing small updates to the front wing and Director of Engineering, Pat Symonds, thinks that the R29’s performance in medium to fast high-speed corners means Turkey could be a chance for a podium finish.

The Istanbul circuit is unlikely to favour McLaren, though.  Lewis Hamilton finished second last year but, as in Spain, Turkey is likely to expose the downforce problems of the MP4-24 and although the McLaren’s KERS should help, the team is expecting a tough race.

Ferrari on the other hand can look forward to Turkey with some confidence.  Felipe Massa has won the last three Turkish Grands Prix and after setting the fastest lap around Monaco he is hoping to continue the Scuderia’s good progress and fight for a podium finish:

I can’t wait for Friday to see if the progress seen in Spain and Monaco will continue in Turkey.

Although Toro Rosso have never done well in Turkey Sebastien Buemi finished on the podium in GP2 last year and likes the circuit:

I think that with what we learned about the car in Monaco, we should be able to use all its potential now and Istanbul should provide a clearer picture of where we really are in the order. We definitely need to do better than at the last three races!

Another team that needs a good result is Toro Rosso’s sister team Red Bull.  They are 43.5 points behind Brawn GP and if they are to stand any chance of narrowing that gap and fending off Ferrari’s rise they need a strong race from both drivers.  Sebastian Vettel is 28 points behind Button and the next couple of races will be critical for his Championship hopes.

Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal:

This is an important race in the Championship and our target is to challenge the Brawns who have had a remarkable run so far. It was also clear at the last two races that Ferrari have made a significant step forward and I think we can expect them to play a key role this weekend, especially as it’s a race they’ve won for the past three years.

To make your predictions in round 7 of the f1buzz prediction game (and be in with a chance to win some nice prizes), just leave a comment on this post with your driver predictions for the race in the following format:

Pole:
First:
Second:
Third:
Fastest lap:

Remember, the deadline for entries is start of qualifying on Saturday, that’s 13:00 GMT.

Good luck!

Image: Ferrari