Turkish Grand Prix

Race Notes:

• Lap 1 ... clean start, but a bad start for Barrichello who loses a ton of spots. Vettel holds off Button to keep P-1.
• Lap 2 ... Vettel gets it lose and Button squeezes by for P-1 and doesn't look back.
• Lap 7 ... nice back and forth racing for position with Barrichello and Kovalainen. But Barrichello pushes it too far, tries to squeeze past and Kovalainen closes the door, contact is made and Barrichello spins out. Barrichello's day went from bad to worse, now P-17.
• Barrichello is second in points for the championship. TV coverage is all over him and for good reason, he is driving like a mad man or someone who thinks this is a NASCAR race.
• Lap 12 ... Barrichello has more contact, this time with Air India's Suttel. Damage to his nose cone. There has got to be some penalties coming.
• Lap 13 Barrichello into the pits for a new nose and some fuel, down to dead last, P-19
• Lap 15 ... Vettel into pits from P-2, out in P-6. Talk of him running a 3 stop race -- why?
• Lap 17 ... Button in the pits from P-1, out in P-3 in front of Vettel.
• Lap 18 ... everyone else starting to pit, which puts Button back to P-1. Vettel P-2 and Kubica P-3
• Lap 21 ... Hamilton passes Kimi for 14th, WTF?!? The two previous world champions as back markers? Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
• Lap 26 ... The Brawn and the Red Bull are the cream of the crop today. It has become a race between these two cars as they continue to leave the rest of the pack further and further behind them.
• Lap 28 ... Vettel into the pits from P-2, Webber in the other Red Bull moves to P-2. Vettel back out in P-3 with one more stop left. I'm thinking this is where the 3 stop strategy starts to fall apart. Webber out in front only has to stop once more as well and should be able to stay in P-2. This was Vettel's race to lose and guess what? He lost it.
• Lap 32 ... Hamilton into the pits from P-10 and out in P-16 right in front of Piquet. Nice battle between the two for postion. Hamilton manages to stay out front.
• Lap 33 ... Piquet dives past Hamilton into the corner, slight contact and gets back P-16.
• 16 to go ... Button in the pits for his last stop of the day. Webber in as well! Button out in P1, Vettel in P-2 with one stop to go and Webber in P-3.
• Announcers now trying to figure out why Red Bull decided to make Vettel's day a 3 stopper which totally wrecked his race. Really? You're only figuring that out now? These guys are a couple of clowns.
• 13 to go ... my man Bourdais, 1 lap down, dead last. Way to represent -- NOT.
• 10 to go ... Barrichello is out. These cars a delicate and when you drive it like a NASCAR, bumping and grinding, eventually something is going to break.
• 5 to go ... Message to Vettel from his pits, "Save your car, Mark (Webber) is faster". Translation, you suck, your race is done, just try to bring it home in third.
• Final Lap ... Button wins (again), Webber 2nd, and Vettel 3rd.

Full race results, here.

Not an overly exciting race. Some great moments and a brilliant drive by Button in the Brawn. Yet I'd rather live-blog this then an Indy Car race. Ever since the unification with Champ Car, I just can't seem to get into it like I used to. I still watch all the races, but the same passion just isn't there any more. At least in F1 you know its the best of the best racing against each other; not just some of the best and those other guys who can afford to buy a ride.

picture courtesy of Planet F1