Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel had an easy run to pick up the Turkish Grand Prix win ahead of the much improved Australian Mark Webber to bring in Red Bull’s first one-two finish of the season. Leading from pole position for the fourth time in a row this year, Vettel took his third win in four races and stretched his championship points lead over McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
Webber is moving closer to second position, only four points behind the Briton who finished fourth due to a poor pit stop.
The race was in stark contrast to last year’s race where Vettel and Webber collided while fighting for the lead in the closing laps, destroying a one-two finish and their cars in the process.
This year the 23 year-old German drove a perfect race to finish 8.8 seconds clear of Mark Webber. Although for a short while nothing seemed perfect as Vettel crashed his car heavily in Friday’s first practice but made up for it a couple of days later by winning the race. Webber also showed true grit when, after a slow start, he lost ground and faced a formidable challenge to work his way back to second and then stay ahead of Fernando Alonso’s fast finishing Ferrari.
Alonso’s third gave Ferrari its first podium finish since last November in Brazil. Nico Rosberg was fifth for Mercedes with Britain’s Jenson Button sixth after some early dicing with Lewis Hamilton.
The Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov were seventh and eighth while Sebastien Buemi was ninth for Toro Rosso. Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher collided with Petrov’s car and finished in 12th place. The next Formula 1 Grand Prix is scheduled for May 22 at the Catalunyia circuit in Spain.