It started of quite dull, but the Turkish GP saved up all the drama for the later part of the race, and the most memorable scene from Istanbul was of the two leading Red Bulls clashing into each other. The team has now confirmed that race leader Mark Webber was driving in fuel-save mode when teammate Sebastian Vettel made a move on him on lap 40.
The Aussie, who was heading for his third win in a row, turned down engine revs to ease to the finish line, but his young teammate had one more lap of full power to use before he also had to go into fuel-save mode. This means that on that particular lap, it was Vettel’s best chance to get past his teammate to snatch the lead.
“He had managed to save an extra kilogramme of fuel – as both cars start the race with the same amount of fuel. Effectively he had one more lap of the optimum engine mode, but we couldn’t back him off because he was under pressure from Lewis Hamilton behind,” team boss Christian Horner explained to Autosport.
He did put the blame squarely on one driver though. “I think Mark put Sebastian on the dirty side, gave him just enough room and Sebastian came across obviously quite aggressively – but he was quite a long way down the side. So, it was very, very frustrating. We saw the McLarens racing each other and giving themselves a bit more room, we’ve seen drivers racing each other previously in Malaysia – which springs to mind as a recent race and they are usually very, very good at giving each other room. Today, for whatever reason, that didn’t happen,” the disappointed boss lamented.
Webber came out of the incident better than Vettel. The Aussie managed a podium finish even after pitting for a new front wing and leads the championship with 93 points, five ahead of Jenson Button. Race winner Lewis Hamilton is third in the table with 84 points. With zero points for this round, Vettel drops to fifth in the standings.
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Team’s fault really, not the drivers. After Webber was asked to go into fuel saving mode, they should have backed Vettel off and let him act as a rear gunner against Hamilton. What would have been the point of letting Vettel pass Webber only to have Webber then defend from Hamilton in fuel economy mode? It would not have advantaged the team at all.
If they were serious about a 1-2 finish, their best option would have been to keep them as they were. Either Horner is stupid or he doesn’t want to admit he favours Vettel.
This is the “official” take from Redbull. Maybe unofficial is vettel went and tried to take the lead.
Reminds me back of when Juan Pablo Montoya took out Ralf Shumacher
What a way for Lewis to win his st race of the season…
Next race will have some tension between Webber and Vettel. But I hope Webber will win more races. He really has the speed and talent, and he has persevered long enough.
Thank God PETRONAS sponsored Mercedes GP. 4th and 5th place with Schumacher name on it is a great ad for the National petroleum company. Tony, where’s your cars or even car?
You are speaking like a little kid.
Yes I’m a little kid with big vision and wisdom.
Little kid with tunnel vision is more like it. Do you know how long ago and much did Petronas have spent on F1? > 10 years and bucket loads of $$, where’s all the whining that we so oftenly hear when Sauber was eating dust and grime. You guys are just looking for a scapegoat. Typical. Grow up.
I agree with you Azrai
Team boss Christian Horner must lay the ground rules for his 2 ambitious drivers, without making it an official ‘team order’ to avoid future clashes. It would be embrassing to the team and sponsors when such incidents happen again, especially when they are leading!
Like McLaren telling Lewis to slow down to save fuel and said ‘don’t worry, Jenson’s doing the same thing too’. :-)
this is the problem when u hav young driver who is very eager to prove himself that he is better than the other one….. They will win at all cost even by taking out teamates
that has always been the way, senna took out prost, schumi took out hill, but in this case, i think it was just an accident in this case. i hope it doesnt affect their partnership coz they got a great thing going this season. this season has been more fun to watch in a long while. thumbs!
As usual…those F1 airplanes are too fragile, little bumping it’ll get broken….change the formats to real cars pls…ala WTCC
In my opinion, if there is no team order, then Red Bull shall investigate this incident just as other incident where 2 different teams are collided.
Since Vettel is faster than Webber, and there is No team order asking Vettel not to overtake, So he will overtake Webber, that simple!
Now Red Bull must investigate whether Vettel hit Webber, or Webber hit Vettel, whoever did wrong is to be blammed.
From our point of view is which team wins the race, then the drivers who are on the podium. But from the drivers, this is about their future. If he keeps on staying at 2nd position then he will not get big contracts in future. In this case he was able to save 1kg of fuel, which shows that he might be equally as good as his team mate to lead the race.
I totally agree with Horner, if you watch the replay, Webber ‘did’ actually never gave vettel room, when Webber actually can turn a little to the right to give a little space but still he can still keep the lead. Its Webbers fault not Vettel. Two, i don’t mind two team mates racing, they actually have the fastest cars that no teams can match. Mclarens did improve but still no match for the red bulls. If there were team orders, once they made their tire pitstop, thats the order of who will win,exciting huh? Thank you Vettel and Button for making the Turkish Grand Prix the most exciting dry race of the 2010 season
From the replay it looked like Vettel came alongside Webber then swerved right suddenly. Maybe trying to intimidate Webber into moving?
I am of the same opinion as Squawk, from what I saw, Vettel suddenly swerved to the right.
This is what Hamilton had to say about the incident “It’s the last thing you want to see and fortunately Sebastian is safe. But I just saw Sebastian go up the inside and Mark hold his line. I don’t think he really had much room to move to the right and I don’t think there was necessarily a reason for Sebastian to try to move to the right.”
Yes Vettel did swerved to the right but imagine going 300 km/h and you’re about to take a corner, what would you do? I bet the same. He was following his racing line and Webber could’ve give him some space so he could just follow the racing line, brake accordingly and just throttle off. I for one put the blame on Webber for this incident. Sorry to say. I am a fan of RBR but what Webber did by not giving Vettel was very unacceptable!
Thinking the same thing. But the same applies to Webber, at 300km/h, his reaction wouldn’t have been fast enough to respond. Only way is for him to get early warning from his engineers that Vettel is about to make a move at that corner, but his engineers are too late.
Nvm, at least the cars are reliable. We can definitely win more in races to come. GO VETTEL GO!! GO WEBBER GO!! GO REDBULL GO!!
dzat, do you know how fast that was? A typical NCAP crash test only take place at around 60km/h, yes, not miles an hour. And what happen yesterday was at least 3 to 4 times that speed dude!
i thk vettel was desperate to pass webber ^^…as webber outperform him the last 2 races ; )
wat a selfish gayish boy vettel is. Just cut in webber’s lane in the end both also kalah…moreover the idiotic Christian “Hornier” also favors Vettel tho it was his fault.. The Webber guy must be real pissed off. Mc L must be laughing all their way thru at redbull stupidity.
Some says F1 is turning into NASCAR with tonnes of dramas (maybe since they r losing spectators) ….OMFG!!!
Let’s form GAV (Gerakan Anti-Vettel) ….lol
Looks like it is Vettel who drove into Webber. But at that point of time, he is the faster driver, maybe he should be more patience and try again if he can’t pass Webber at that spot.
Vettel is a SPOILED BRAT.
.. I agree, but I guess you can’t really blame him.. just 22 yo and a hot-head. He’ll get over it. His frustration was a spur of the moment. Both of them should get over it. It’s not the end of the world. Just one of those days.