After a stunning second win of the season at Monaco, my F1 circus rolled into Istanbul Park for the Turkish Grand Prix.
Few tracks in F1 run counter-clockwise, but Turkey is one of them. The track is fast, featuring one of Formula 1’s fastest corners, the long but quick turn 8.
There aren’t many areas where you need to be especially hard on the brakes here, as I learned during the practice sessions. Even turns 1 and 4, which look tight, are quite quick. Turn 9 requires a reasonable hit of the brakes, as does turn 12 (though even 12 isn’t especially hard, so once again I was able to push pretty hard here).
nevertheless, I was pipped to pole by Webber by a hairs breadth, so I was starting from 2nd. When the race started I slipped down to third, behind the Ferrari of Massa (who had astonishingly qualified 3rd), and spent a few laps having a bit of a struggle to fight past him, as the tyres took a few laps to switch on.
After that, I had to catch and pass Webber, but he was barely ahead of Massa, so it didn’t take long to ease past him too.
After my first pit stop I was all the way down in 8th, but crucially, the cars ahead were yet to stop and I emerged ahead of Webber after the first set of stops were done and dusted. I was able to catch and pass a few other cars prior to their stops, which was a plus.
I did have a brief but exciting battle with the two Brawns, closing in here and there but pushing a tad too hard every now and then, before finally making a move stick on the pair of them at turn 12.
From that point on I was able to build up a healthy lead. I was able to complete my subsequent pit stops and remain in the lead, such was my advantage, and would cruise to a third straight win. Button’s second place meant I reduced his advantage in the title race to three points!
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