Jenson Button tightened his hold on the 2009 championship, passing pole sitter Sebastian Vettel on the first lap and taking his sixth win in seven races at Istanbul Park.
Vettel led Button from the start. Brawn’s Rubens Barrichello dropped back after a horrendous start, leaving Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber in third as Button took off in pursuit.
Taking advantage of a Vettel mistake at turn 10, Button took the lead and never looked back. The mistake was the worst that could happen to Vettel, who was on a three-stop strategy, and had to settle for third place after falling victim to Webber’s more conventional two-stopper.
Among the best of the rest, Jarno Trulli beat Nico Rosberg for fourth. Felipe Massa finished sixth in the Ferrari, while Robert Kubica delivered a seventh for BMW Sauber ahead of Toyota’s Timo Glock.
It was a difficult day for Lewis Hamilton, the champion barely avoiding finishing a lap down, but it was one better than teammate Heikki Kovalainen, who started from a far better position.
But the prize for worst afternoon has to go to Barrichello, who suffered from his anti-stall kicking in at the start. The Brazilian, desperate to salvage points, tried to force things with both Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil, the first resulting in a spin and the second with a damaged from wing, and retired after 47 laps, his title challenge dealt another 10-point blow.
Button heads to his home race, perhaps the last at Silverstone, with a 26 point lead on his teammate, and 32 on Vettel. Second and third for Red Bull did give the team a boost in the constructors, however, where Brawn have 96 points to Red Bull’s 56.5.
Turkish Grand Prix (58 laps)
- Jenson Button, Brawn - Mercedes
- Mark Webber, Red Bull - Renault
- Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull - Renault
- Jarno Trulli, Toyota
- Nico Rosberg, Williams - Toyota
- Felipe Massa, Ferrari
- Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber
- Timo Glock, Toyota
- Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
- Fernando Alonso, Renault
- Nick Heidfeld, BMW Sauber
- Kazuki Nakajima, Williams - Toyota
- Lewis Hamilton, McLaren - Mercedes
- Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren - Mercedes 1 lap
- Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1 lap
- Nelson Piquet, Renault 1 lap
- Adrian Sutil, Force India - Mercedes 1 lap
- Sebastien Bourdais, Toro Rosso - Ferrari 1 lap
- Rubens Barrichello, Brawn -Mercedes 11 laps
- Giancarlo Fisichella, Force India-Mercedes 54 laps
Missed it? The Turkish Grand Prix as it happened (BBC)
GP2
Lucas di Grassi led wire to wire to win race two today in Istanbul. Javier Villa and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the top three.
Latest from the front
FOTA met with the drivers and the report coming out of Istanbul is the drivers are backing their teams.
It was a meeting involving eight FOTA teams, as it appears rumors Force India have broken ranks and lodged an unconditional entry for 2010 are true.
It was also rumored some teams wanted to boycott the Turkish race, a la Indianapolis 2005, leaving only Force India and Williams on the grid, but if true, those plans did not come to fruition.
The FIA is set to make an announcement on 2010 entries Friday.
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