Turkish GP: Vettel Cruises To His Third

Sebastian Vettel demonstrated his maturity and Red Bull their pace as the German put in a faultless drive to take his third win of the season

Starting from pole position, the defending World Champion stormed into the lead, completely untroubled by those behind him.

From there it was but a walk in the park for the Red Bull driver, who only reliquished the lead when he stopped for fresh tyres.

Cruising across the line, having opted for a four-stop strategy, which included a late stop to ensure that no one on fresher tyres could take the victory away from him ala China style, Vettel bagged another 25 points towards his title defense.

Mark Webber and Fernando Alonso were involved in a thrilling battling seven laps from the end of the grand prix. It started earlier in the race when Alonso past Nico Rosberg in the opening few laps and then later took Webber with the use of his adjustable rear wing.

The Aussie had no answer for the Ferrari driver as he stormed by and had to settle in behind him. Both drivers opted for four-stop strategies to give them the edge in the closing stages but it seemed to give Webber more of the edge and paid Alonso back, overtaking the Spaniard to finish second in a Red Bull 1-2.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton lost his chance of fighting for a podium finish when his third stop took precious extra seconds+ due to a problem with his front right wheel nut.

He dropped down the order but fought back to fourth place before coming in for his fourth stop, which put him behind team-mate Jenson Button, who was on a three-stopper to Hamilton's four. With Hamilton on fresh rubber, Button had no answer to his team-mate, who took the position off him without a breaking a sweat.

Nico Rosberg, another four-stopper, was the next to take Button, a welcome feeling for the Mercedes GP driver, who seemed to spend much of the race dropping down the order. He had been P2 after the opening lap.

Nick Heidfeld, Vitaly Petrov, Sebastien Buemi and Kamui Kobayashi completed the points.

Results
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:30:17.558
02. Mark Webber Red Bull +8.807
03. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +10.075
04. Lewis Hamilton McLaren + 40.232
05. Nico Rosberg Mercedes + 47.539
06. Jenson Button McLaren + 59.431
07. Nick Heidfeld Renault + 1:00.857
08. Vitaly Petrov Renault + 1:08.168
09. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso + 1:09.300
10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber + 1:18.000
11. Felipe Massa Ferrari + 1:19.800
12. Michael Schumacher Mercedes + 1:25.400
13. Adrian Sutil Force India + 1 lap
14. Sergio Perez Sauber + 1 lap
15. Rubens Barrichello Williams + 1 lap
16. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso +1 lap
17. Pastor Maldonado Williams + 1 lap
18. Jarno Trulli Lotus + 1 lap
19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus + 2 laps
20. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin + 2 laps
21. Narain Karthikeyan HRT + 3 laps
22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT + 5 laps

Source: Planet-F1