From the leader’s perspective, the race had no history, as Vettel secured 1st place from pole position and never looked back. Right in his rear, Alonso jumped to 4th place at the start, after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton ran wide while trying to overtake Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.
The Spaniard didn’t take long to overtake the Mercedes driver and soon trailed Mark Webber for 2nd place, which he eventually gained after the 2nd round of pit stops. With only 5 laps to go however, and with both Alonso and Webber making their 3rd pit stops and on hard tires, the Australian stroke back and regained 2nd place, which he didn’t let go until the chequered flag.
The Ferrari-an had to settle for 3rd place, ahead of McLaren’s duo Hamilton and Jenson Button. Rosberg, who managed a great first half of the race, managed an effort only good for 6th place, while Renault managed to put both its drivers inside points for the first time this season, with Nick Heidfeld securing 7th place ahead of teammate Vitaly Petrov.
Sebastien Buemi is probably thanking his team for a great pit stop strategy that helped him cross the finish line inside the Top 10, as he recorded his 2nd point scoring finish of the season and ended the afternoon in 9th place. Finally, it was Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber F1 to take the final point, leaving both Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher outside the Top 10 in Turkey.
In the overall classification, Vettel’s 3rd win out of 4 races this season has handed him a 33-point lead over Lewis Hamilton, while Mark Webber jumped to 3rd place, 4 points behind the McLaren driver.
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