Notes Taken During the 2009 F1 Race in Turkey

Notes taken during the FOX broadcast of the Turkish Grand Prix, Istanbul Otodrom, Istanbul, Turkey.

Welcome to the 3.3-mile twisty in Tour-kee (Turkey). pressdog beer of the race is Black Sheep Ale, "crisp, dry and bittersweet," brewed in Masham, North Yorkshire, England. It's hoppy like an IPA, but with a stout kind of vibe to it. I dig it.

Bob Varsha, Peter Hobbs and Steve Matchett are in the studio in Charlotte, NC while Pete Windsor is on the ground in Turkey. Toyota Story Lines -- Hobbs -- Brawn GP is bitchslapping everyone. Bob -- Red Bull is a surprise and hungry for a win. Matchett -- Ferrari shows signs of life after first few races of flat-line.

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel looks like his name should be Wolfgang, I think. McLaren Mercedes is having issues. Total pigland this year after Lewis Hamilton won the world championship for them last year.

Pete Windsor Grid Walk -- Hot on the grid. Circuit is "anti-clockwise" (counter-clockwise for us Yanks). Windsor with Rubens Barrichello of Brawn GP -- Be pretty good one with different strategies. Sebastian (Vettel) is a lap shorter than us on fuel. If everything goes to plan we should be able to get ahead but he could change strategies. Rubens is on a two-stop strategy. Holy abbreviated grid walk! Pete gets miniscule air this time on FOX.

Grid Girls get air. Hobbs take us around the track, anti-clockwise! Track was built five years ago for F1 and several other purposes, but now it sits unused until the F1 weekend. On the practice shows, the SPEED posse said there is some talk that the track will not renew its F1 race in a couple years when the contract comes up. Too much of a money loser with poor attendance. But, that's just the talk right now. Supposedly no shortage of places that want to build a track and host an F1 race.

Starting lineup: Vettel, Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello, Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli, Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, Kazuki Nakajima, Timo Glock, Heikki Kovalainen, Adrian Sutil, Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet, Sebastien Buemi, Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastien Bourdais.

Cars are gridded. Let's light this candle. Lights out means GREEN GREEN GREEN.

Rubens gets a super shitty start. Inhaled by many people. In and out of first turn without a festival of carbon fiber breaking out. Rosberg inhales Räikkönen. Now 'Nando has Räikkönen under attack. Vettel leads Button.

Button inhales Vettel! Pass for the lead. Hole schnikies. Replay? Räikkönen up under Nico ... NO. Some banging there.

Rubens works on Kovalainen ... No. Replay of the pass for the lead. Vettel goes wide in 9 and 10, dirt tracks it, gets fishy, and Button INHALES him. Clear. Race may be over right there.

Alonso and Kubica battle. Matchett explains that the harder of the two compounds of tires are the preferred ones. Most will run as little as possible on the softs since they go off so fast. (Rules say you gotta use both types of tire at least once during the race. The rule is aimed at increasing the strategizing in the pit and the overtaking on the track.)

Räikkönen radios that he may have lost some front wing during the festival of paint swapping at the start.

Kovalainen works on Heidfeld. Rubens lost nine positions at the start. Button and Vettel got the wings back in the delta and are supersonic. Breaking way from the rest of the field. Replay of the start. Looks like Rubens may have nearly stalled it. Massive inhalation from behind.

Lap 4 -- Button, Vettel, Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, Massa, Alonso, Kubica, Räikkönen, Nakajima, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Glock, Heidfeld, Sutil, Piquet, Hamilton, Fisichella, Bourdais.

Matchett -- Barrichello has about five laps less fuel (about 11 pounds, I think) on board than the cars in front of him so he needs to pass them very soon.

Fisichella is in the pits. May be done. Looks done.

Hobbs says Kovalainen is using his KERS to fend off Rubens. (Reminder: the Kinetic Energy Recovery System uses the rotation of the axle under braking to generate power which is then saved in batteries which is then shot back into the car in 8-ish seconds boosts when the driver hits a button, which gives the car about 60 (or is it 80?) extra horsepower.

Jenson is one lap heavier (about a kilo) on fuel and still ahead of everyone.

Matchett puts the pit window at about Lap 19 to 20 for most cars.

Lap 5 -- Button, Vettel, Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, Massa, Alonso, Kubica, Räikkönen, Nakajima, Kovalainen, Barrichello.

Button and Vettel turning 1:28 laps. Vettel is 2.9 seconds behind Button.

Hamilton's father, Anthony, gets air. He's also Hamilton's manager. Lewis is P17. Not so good. Behind Nelson Piquet Jr. Human sacrifice ... dogs and cats, living together ... mass hysteria.

Lap 7 -- Rubens gets Kovalainen ... CLEAR. Kovalainen back under Rubens, KERS boost! CLEAR. Re-passes. A very cool series of passes and re-passes by those two right here.

Cue the circus music! Rubens dives under Kovalainen, wheel bang!, Rubens does a mad 360 on the track (booth guys: "ooooooooo.") and is able to get underway. Kovalainen saves it and continues. Rubens inhaled by about five cars.

Replay of pass from chopper cam. BANG. Rubens was very optimistic there. Didn't have the corner. Not Kovalainen's fault.

Bob -- Kovalainen shut the door with authority there.

Lap 8 -- Rubens back underway and has inhaled Hamilton. Now onto Piquet. Replay -- Rubens dives under Lewis .. CLEAR. Very decisive pass there.

Lap 13 -- Button is 5.6 seconds up on Vettel. Barrichello pits. Back out. Left rear wheel guy may not have been done when Barrichello pulled away.

Circus music Replay! Barrichello under Sutil .. CONTACT. Festival of Carbon Fiber and Circus Music. Ruben's front wing is carbon fiber confetti. That's why he had to pit.

Button, Vettel, Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, Massa, Alonso, Kubica, Räikkönen, Nakajima, Kovalainen, Glock, Heidfeld, Sutil, Barrichello, Piquet, Hamilton, Buemi, Bourdais.

Lap 15 -- Vettel pits. Trulli pits.

Lap 17 -- Button pits. Out in P3. Webber leads. Massa pitted with Button.

Vettel is P4. Webber goes purple (best time of the day) in two sectors. He may be on his inlap.

Webber does indeed pit. Out in back of Kubica. Order now: Button, Vettel, Kubica, Webber, Nakajima, Rosberg, Trulli, Kovalainen. Kubica still has to pit.

Lap 20 -- Varsha covers the story of BMW Sauber going from contender last year to the Pig Train this year.

Lap 21 -- Vettel is now one second quicker than Button. Has less fuel on board.

Hamilton overtakes Räikkönen for 13th. Hobbs -- Who would have thought a Ferrari and a McLaren would duke it out for 13th late in the race, and with two previous world champions driving no less?

How the mighty hath fallen, David.

Replays of Hamilton passing Räikkönen. Vettel closing on Button.

Lap 24 -- Vettel is working on Button. Not close enough to overtake yet.

Button, Vettel, Webber, Nakajima, Rosberg, Glock, Trulli, Massa, Heidfeld, Kubica, Alonso, Piquet.

Lap 25 -- Matchett says Vettel needs to get past Button. He's five laps lighter on fuel and needs to get by before they both have to go on the softer tires.

There are only four tracks on the F1 schedule that go anti-clockwise.

Lap 28 -- Vettel can't gain on Button. Vettel pits. Matchett says Vettel going to a three-stop strategy. Yep, they put hard tires on Vettel's car so he will have to pit again for some soft tires.

Three-stop strategy: Lighter fuel load in theory helps you go faster so you can gap out the competition when they make their second stop pit for a splash and come out in front for the last stint.

Lap 33 -- Button, Webber, Vettel, Rosberg, Trulli, Massa, Nakajima, Kubica.

Lewis and Piquet fight for P17. Read that a couple of times and let the insanity of it soak in.

Piquet and Fisichella battle through some esses. Outside, dirt tracking, trading paint. Piquet under -- CLEAR.

Lap 41 -- Discussion of Williams-Toyota. Hobbs says race strategy has been horrid. Rosberg pushing for the team's first top-5 in about a billion years.

Jenson now has 20 seconds on the field. If he gets to 25 or so, he can pit and come out still in P1.

Lap 43 -- Button pits from P1. Webber pits. Webber out in P3. Button out in P1. Stick a fork in this one.

Button will lap Kovalainen soon. Button now 8.5 seconds ahead of Vettel who still has to stop.

Lap 44 -- Varsha covers the controversy in F1. Basically, the teams have created a union (not in fact, but in practice) called the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) in reaction to some of the extreme rules changes proposed by F1 leadership. One of them is what Varsha calls "draconian" budget cuts going from a multi-hundred millions budget PER TEAM to about $70 million U.S. per team. Many other wrinkles. As it stands now, the FOTA teams are threatening to not be in the league next year and the F1 is saying "hey, that's fine, we'll find new teams."

June 12 FIA (F1 governing body) will pick 20 or so teams from applicants to be on the grid in 2010.

13 to go -- Vettel has to pit for soft tires at some point here. Button, Vettel, Webber, Trulli, Rosberg, Glock, Massa, Heidfeld, Kubica, Räikkönen, Alonso, Piquet, Nakajima, Hamilton.

11 to go -- Vettel has to gap P2 and 3 to have a hope to pit and still come out on the podium.

10 to go -- Vettel is in. So ar Rubens, Kovalainen (I think) and Piquet.

Rubens is toast. DNF for Brawn. First ever. Webber is out in third.

9 to go -- insert Salute to Brawn here. Ross Brawn was a stallion with Ferrari for a long time. Went to Honda. Honda was Pigland last year. Worked on the 2009 car all 2008 since the season was lost. Honda decided to get out of the business. Ross bought the team for like $1. Since then has won 5 of the first 6.

8 to go -- Jenson will win barring air strike. Button, Webber. Trulli, Rosberg, Massa, Kubica, Glock, Räikkönen, Alonso.

7 to go -- Webber is 20 seconds back of Jenson.

6 to go -- Vettel radio says "Mark is faster" which is code for "don't pass your teammate."

4 to go -- Lewis may soon be lapped.

3 to go -- Rubens was done in by the gearbox.

2 to go -- Suspense is killing me. Not. 

White. Checkered. Jenson blows up in the last corner! Kidding. Jenson wins. Zig-zag across the line.

Jenson on his radio -- You have built me a monster of a car. You are absolute legends.

Finish order: Button, Webber, Vettel, Trulli, Rosberg, Massa, Kubica, Glock, Räikkönen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Nakajima, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Buemi, Piquet, Sutil, Bourdais, Barrichello, Fisichella.

In 1994 Mike Schumacher started the season with 6 wins and a second place in the first 7 starts.

In 2009, Button starts with 6 wins and a third in 7 starts.

Points: Button 61, Barrichello 35, Vettel 29, Webber 27.5.

Constructors: Brawn GP Mercedes 96, Red Bull Reault 56.5, Toyota 32.5, Ferrari 20, McLaren Mercedes 13. Brawn GP Mercedes needs 4 more points to clinch the title.

That's it from Turkey. Next race is Great Britain, June 21, 7 a.m.

Comments

[jdh417]

http://jdh417.blogspot.com/2009/06/f1-turkish-grand-prix.html

Unfortunately, I watched this race too, but I was jazzed to see JB take home another win.