The complete 2011 Turkish GP review

PRACTICE

Practice one

It would be easy to focus on the fact that Sebastian Vettel converted 'Kinky Kylie' into something more akin to an ineffective supermarket trolley when he lost control of his Red Bull RB7 after running wide on the exit of Turn 8 in the rain. And let's face it, there's not many occasions when you see any reigning world champion make such a costly error.

But to do that would be to overlook the weather itself, which allowed us a misty window into how Pirelli's tyres might work should they be called into action later this season.

The results were inconclusive of course because neither McLaren driver was inclined to set a timed lap, but Fernando Alonso did and, while running on the wets, reported that after just five laps he was sensing a performance drop off. Interestingly the Spaniard, who was fastest in the session, actually set the best time on intermediates.

But when the rain began to fall harder again, several big names spun after aquaplaning at Turn 11 and Vettel bent all four wheels on his wagon.

Through all the carnage came the Mercedes W02s of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher to go second and third fastest - the silver machines would become a theme of practice and qualifying.

Practice two

By the afternoon, the wet weather was all but gone, and wouldn't be seen again for the rest of the weekend.

Also absent - but only for this session - was Vettel, whose car could not be repaired in time, leaving him a sanguine spectator.

On track, it was an all-silver battle for the top spot, as McLaren and Mercedes disputed the leading positions.

Jenson Button ultimately set the fastest time, but only by 0.065s over Rosberg, with their respective team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Schumacher next up. The latter had an odd spin exiting the back chicane when seemingly startled by a passing Force India.

Mark Webber spent a lot of the afternoon quietly doing longer runs before taking fifth.

Alonso didn't have a great afternoon, with a spin and hydraulics issues. But he didn't do any damage to his car, unlike Pastor Maldonado, who ensured he would be using Williams's older spec front wing all weekend when he smashed the new one on the Turn 8 barriers.

Practice three

So how costly was Vettel's Friday crash? Not very. By the time the first serious runs of practice three were complete, he was fastest. And that's where he would be at the end of the session too, as his soft-tyre run was also better than anyone else could manage. Vettel's margin over second-placed Schumacher may only have been 0.001s, but that had a lot to do with him coming across Tonio Liuzzi's Hispania in the final corners.

The top four positions were spread between Red Bull and Mercedes, with Webber and Rosberg next up, followed by the two McLarens.

Ferrari would have a challenging break between practice and qualifying. Alonso's car became stuck in sixth gear, while an engine irregularity prompted the team to stick an alternative V8 in Felipe Massa's car.

QUALIFYING

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-0

Vettel's smile after qualifying said everything about his performance: he could probably have gone quicker if needed. Webber was his only rival, and even the Australian couldn't touch the world champion. The second run was not needed, and so Vettel had it all in his favour for the race.

2. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-4

With Vettel untouchable, Webber had to be content with his position, especially after the disappointment of China, where he was knocked out in Q1. He also saved a set of fresh tyres so things were looking good for the race, although he was starting from the dirty side of the road, quite a big disadvantage in Turkey.

3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-0

Rosberg said he was amazed to see how Mercedes had progressed over the last two races and, unsurprisingly, the German was a delighted man. Not only he was Red Bull's closest rival, but he also put a second between himself and team-mate Schumacher.

4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-1

It wasn't a great day for Hamilton, who was never in contention for a shot at pole. The worse news, perhaps, was that he was starting from the dirty side of the track and that he had used all his soft tyres, which put him at a bigger disadvantage for the race.

5. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-0

The Spaniard seems to have a subscription to fifth place on the grid: he has qualified there four times in a row this season. Alonso admitted he was happy to see the progress made by Ferrari to reduce the gap to the top, but conceded there was still some way to go before the team could match its rivals' pace.

6. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-3

Button was unable to get a good balance during qualifying, which meant he struggled to get the maximum out of his car. On top of that, he decided to go for two runs in Q3 and, not being able to get a good lap during the second stint, he was left bemoaning his decision.

7. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-1

The Russian was not happy with his performance despite a good effort to reach Q3, claiming he could have been higher up the grid. As it was, he had to settle for seventh, but Petrov was still upbeat about his chances of making progress in the race.

8. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-4

It was, to say the least, a confusing qualifying session for Schumacher, who could not find an explanation as to why he was over a second slower than Rosberg. Afterwards the seven-time champion had no issues with his car and no mistakes during his lap, so he was mystified by the gap. He later admitted that it could have been down to over-driving on the delicate tyres.

9. Nick Heidfeld, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-3

After having problems with the balance and set-up of his car during Q1, Heidfeld was satisfied with his efforts in Q2, where he felt more comfortable with the car. The German felt he could have gone faster if not for understeer issues during his final run.

10. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-4

Like many drivers, Massa opted to do just one run in the final qualifying segment. The problem, however, was that he made a mistake during his run, which he aborted. Such were the tyre issues expected for the race that the Brazilian preferred not to run again and start from 10th.

11. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-1

Barrichello was very satisfied with his performance and with the upgrades introduced by Williams. He was unable to use the latest rear wing in qualifying but felt he had done a good job with what he had. Given the tyre situation, 11th place was not a bad result at all, as it allowed him to choose his strategy freely.

12. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-3

Qualifying was "straightforward" for the German, who finally managed to outpace his rookie team-mate during a grid-deciding session. He was pleased with his day, although he admitted qualifying was not that significant given what was expected in the race tyre-wise.

13. Paul di Resta, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-1

Another man to do just one run to save tyres for the race, di Resta was happy with the team's performance, claiming he had finished basically where he was expecting. On the down side he lost out to his team-mate for the first time this year and was reprimanded for missing a call to the weighbridge.

14. Pastor Maldonado, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-3

After a difficult Friday, Maldonado admitted his qualifying performance had left him happier than ever before this season. It was a good showing by the rookie, who could have gone three tenths quicker had he had KERS, which he was unable to use all weekend.

15. Sergio Perez, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-2

The Mexican was clearly disappointed with his result after being unable to extract the maximum from his car. Perez was happy with his run on the harder tyre in Q1, but was then struggling for pace with the soft tyres in the second segment.

16. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-1

Buemi was mystified by his lack of performance in qualifying, the Swiss driver unable to match the kind of lap time he had achieved in the morning. The field was very close and a tenth would have made a significant difference, but the Toro Rosso driver was not happy with his result.

17. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-3

The Spaniard was surprisingly upbeat for a driver who had qualified in 17th position, but the "Webber effect" seemed to leave a lot of men hopeful about their chances, despite having qualified poorly. As it was, Alguersuari felt 17th with a new set of tyres for Sunday was a pretty good result.

18. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-0

Finishing just half a second behind Barrichello in Q1 was a good effort from Kovalainen and Lotus, the Finn happy with his day despite missing out on Q2. He is hopeful, however, that things will change when his team introduces its upgrade package in the next race in Spain.

19. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-4

Once again, Trulli's performance was hindered by some problems with his car, this time with the DRS, which, at a circuit like Istanbul, was especially costly. Nonetheless, the Italian was happy with his performance and also bullish about Lotus's progress.

20. Jerome D'Ambrosio, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-2

The Belgian started the weekend with around 50 per cent of the upgrades team-mate Glock had, but right from the start he was feeling comfortable with the car and ended up being the strongest of the Virgin duo. Understandably he was very happy with his showing, although he dropped to the bottom of the grid due to a penalty for ignoring yellow flags.

21. Tonio Liuzzi, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-0

The Italian was upbeat about his team's performance, and with good reason after managing to outqualify one of the Virgins thanks to his strongest outing of the season to date. The team brought some upgrades to Turkey and Liuzzi made good use of them to show the Spanish squad is making progress.

22. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-2

The updates did not make Glock's life any easier in Turkey, the German at a loss to explain the gap to team-mate D'Ambrosio. Virgin was forced to remove some of the parts tested on Friday, namely the exhaust and floor elements, because they were overheating.

23. Narain Karthikeyan, Hispania
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-4

Karthikeyan admitted he should have done better considering Liuzzi's time and position, and finishing nearly a second behind was not a good effort. The Indian said he had felt good during his first run, but could not find any grip during the second one.

24. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-2

Kobayashi's day and his qualifying chances ended just minutes into the first session, when his Sauber suffered a problem with the fuel system. The Japanese was unable to return to action and so failed to even set a time. The good news was he had plenty of tyres for the race which, combined with his overtaking skills, made up for a promising combination.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time         Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m25.049s
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m25.454s  + 0.405
 3.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m25.574s  + 0.525
 4.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m25.595s  + 0.546
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m25.851s  + 0.802
 6.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m25.982s  + 0.933
 7.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m26.296s  + 1.247
 8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m26.646s  + 1.597
 9.  Nick Heidfeld         Renault              1m26.659s  + 1.610
10.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              No time
Q3 cut-off time: 1m26.740s                                   Gap **
11.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m26.764s  + 1.154
12.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m27.027s  + 1.417
13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m27.145s  + 1.535
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m27.236s  + 1.626
15.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m27.244s  + 1.634
16.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m27.255s  + 1.645
17.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m27.572s  + 1.962
Q3 cut-off time: 1m28.321s                                    Gap *
18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m28.780s  + 1.767
19.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m31.119s  + 2.106
20.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m30.445s  + 3.432
21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m30.692s  + 3.679
22.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m30.813s  + 3.800
23.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m31.564s  + 4.551
24.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       No time

107% time: 1m33.103s

* Gap to quickest in Q1

** Gap to quickest in Q2

THE RACE

Poor Sebastian Vettel. Formula 1 2011 is a lot of fun: amazing wheel to wheel racing, arguably more overtaking than at any time since the 1960/1970s Monza slipstreamers, ultra-challenging on-the-hoof strategic thinking and an end to the days of grid positions deciding everything. But China aside, Vettel hasn't been getting any of that action at all.

On the other hand, he does now have the compensation of three wins from four races and a 34-point championship lead already. And that comfortable margin accurately sums up his position at the moment: the world champion has a very handy cushion over the glorious chaos and unpredictability of this season, his speed allowing him to always stay one step ahead of the game.

When Vettel was smashing his RB7 into the Turn 8 barriers in Friday morning's wet practice session, it seemed to obvious to suggest that this might be a weekend when his armour was penetrable. The rain meant there were only 150 minutes of dry track time before qualifying, and with the car too badly damaged to be repaired for Friday afternoon, Vettel had ruled himself out of 90 of them.

And yet by the end of his first proper run in practice three, the German was fastest, and he went on to top all three parts of qualifying and extend his pole streak despite his approach being so casual that he sat out the final minutes of Q3 to save tyres, confident that his pole time was out of his rivals' reach (a tactic mirrored by team-mate Mark Webber).

But it was in the race that his comfort margin was even more obvious. Webber dropping behind Nico Rosberg at the start did do Vettel a favour, giving him an early four-second gap to second by the time his team-mate had got there. And for most of the distance, there was little to choose between Vettel's times and those of the chasing Webber and Fernando Alonso. Yet the other Red Bull and the Ferrari were munching through their tyres to achieve that almost-within-reach-of-Vettel pace, and were firmly committed to four stops. Vettel, however, had things so under control he could have got through on three, only visiting the pits a fourth time to play it safe. While pit choices were causing endless angst elsewhere in the field, Vettel gave the impression of being a man who could do whatever he liked with his tyres.

"In the end, I think I could have afforded to stay out, but you have to be in a position for whatever comes," he mused. "I could have made it easily to the chequered flag, but then again, if something happens or an accident elsewhere and a safety car comes out and obviously you are on a used tyre... I think it was the right thing to come in another time. It was very much in control."

That meant a winning margin that could have been as high as 25s was only 8s. But who was going to take that 'best of the rest' slot was in doubt right to the end.

Starting from the dirty side of the grid hadn't helped Webber off the line, with Rosberg able to easily get ahead of him as the lights went out, and Lewis Hamilton having a very good go at doing likewise - at least until the McLaren slewed wide at Turn 3. Not that Webber was too concerned to be third.

"No panic these days," he said. "It's a long race. With last year's regulations and years before, when passing was very very difficult, yeah, you might be panicking a bit more."

Sure enough, on lap five the Australian was triggering his DRS on the backstraight and cruising past Rosberg. But by then Vettel was already 4s ahead, and that crucial comfort zone was established.

"It's a bit like in tennis or squash, when you have the ball in control of what you want to do," said Webber. "Seb drove a great race and then when you're in control of the manipulation round the stops it's an accumulation of making life easier."

Instead of chasing his team-mate, Webber had to focus on the presence of a red car lurking in his mirrors. Alonso had swiftly passed Rosberg too - Mercedes admitting that it had yet to translate its increase in raw qualifying pace into a sustainable race-long speed that didn't hurt the tyres - and once up to third, the Ferrari wasn't being left behind by the Red Bulls. Alonso even set a few fastest race laps as he closed onto Webber's tail, the Australian admitting that the Spaniard "drove fantastically today."

On lap 29 Alonso was close enough to hit his DRS switch and fly past the Red Bull down the outside into the final complex. He edged away for a while, but after their fourth stops the Ferrari was down to a used set of hard tyres whereas Webber had some fresh ones to play with, and within a few laps Red Bull had its one-two back again. Given his start to 2011, though, Alonso was quite content with third.

"Finally," he said, "we enjoy racing again."

The most enjoyable racing of all was happening in the pack that stretched from fourth backwards, and at various times featured both McLarens, both Mercedes, both Renaults, Felipe Massa, Kamui Kobayashi and Sebastien Buemi. Michael Schumacher's involvement in this group was fairly brief - as Vitaly Petrov dived past on lap two, the Mercedes turned in, banged wheels and deranged its front wing.

"I guess it was mostly my mistake, what happened there," said Schumacher, echoing a verdict most spectators would have reached pretty instantly. "I need to analyse it."

Petrov wasn't having a totally serene race himself, with a subsequent close call with Renault team-mate Nick Heidfeld leaving the German distinctly unimpressed: "That's not nice. It shouldn't happen. He just pushed me wide and we made contact. It's not a safe thing to do."

The McLarens were also producing some intra-team fireworks, though Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button thoroughly enjoyed the dice which included Hamilton - who had fallen to sixth in his failed bid to pass Webber on lap one - diving down the inside of Button into Turn 12, losing the position through the next complex, then retaking it down the inside at Turn 1. His efforts had taken a lot out of his tyres, though, and Button was soon back in front.

Button was the only man other than Vettel to lead the race, as while most of the frontrunners went for four stops, the 2009 champion stuck with his original plan of three. That allowed him a few laps at the head of the field, and meant that by the end of the race he was in fourth place, having jumped clear of all the four-stoppers.

But he had Hamilton and Rosberg hunting him down on fresher tyres, and with DRS on their side, both were able to breeze past. Given his first-lap slip-up and a later 13s delay at a pitstop due to a wheelnut issue and then the need to wait for Massa to come past, Hamilton was very pleased with fourth - and to his credit, he said it was his own error that had ultimately cost him any chance of getting near the podium.

"The race is not won on the first two corners, and I was really impatient, and that was my fault," he said.

Sixth was less satisfying for Button, especially as he was confident a three-stop strategy could have worked had the pit visits been timed right.

"We didn't leave the tyres long enough," he insisted. "The tyres were still good at the end of every stint, but we came in. We should've stayed out for longer because it made the last stint just impossible, having so many laps on the hard tyre."

The squabbling Renaults came through to seventh and eighth, Heidfeld in front - although it was Petrov who had briefly run as high as fifth following a relatively early first tyre change. They passed the extremely impressive Buemi in the last two laps, as the Toro Rosso came close to pulling off a great 16th-to-seventh result on a three-stop strategy. Buemi insisted it wasn't tyre wear as such that caused his late fade, more a surprise vibration.

Kobayashi also got a good result out of three stops, turning his 23rd on the grid into a 10th place finish - though he reckoned it might have been seventh had he not had to pit early at one stage after picking up a puncture wheel-banging with Buemi.

Two messy pitstops and a trip off the road at Turn 8 meant Massa was back in 11th at the flag, salvaging that place with an assertive late move on his sometime mentor Schumacher. Kobayashi had also had a close call with the seven-time champion earlier in the race, with Adrian Sutil shoving his Force India into the gap created by the Sauber and wheel-banging past Schumacher too. Sutil fell back later and ultimately only just beat Sergio Perez to 13th, as the Sauber rookie made a good recovery from running into Pastor Maldonado on the first lap and breaking his front wing. Paul di Resta retired the second Force India on safety grounds after a wheel was fitted incorrectly at a pitstop.

Williams couldn't translate its qualifying promise into a better race, with Rubens Barrichello and Maldonado only 15th and 17th, either side of the tyre-troubled Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari. It had looked much more encouraging at first, as Barrichello thrust himself between the Renaults in the top 10 in the shuffle following the Petrov/Schumacher clash, but KERS issues, tyre wear and a lack of straightline speed saw the Brazilian fade, while his team-mate picked up a pit speeding penalty.

Lotus was slightly adrift of the pack this time in 18th and 19th, Jarno Trulli ahead as Heikki Kovalainen nursed a car with dodgy hydraulics. Jerome D'Ambrosio somehow pulled off a two-stop strategy to take 20th for Virgin, though his team-mate Timo Glock failed to start due to gearbox problems, and Narain Karthikeyan was top Hispania due to major wheel change delays at one of Tonio Liuzzi's pitstops.

RACE RESULTS

The Turkish Grand Prix
Istanbul, Turkey;
58 laps; 309.396km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           1h30:17.558
 2.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +     8.807
 3.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    10.075
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           +    40.232
 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    47.539
 6.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    59.431
 7.  Heidfeld      Renault                    +  1:00.857
 8.  Petrov        Renault                    +  1:08.168
 9.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +  1:09.300
10.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:18.000
11.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1:19.800
12.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +  1:25.400
13.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +     1 lap
14.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +     1 lap
15.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
16.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
17.  Maldonado     Williams-Cosworth          +     1 lap
18.  Trulli        Lotus-Renault              +     1 lap
19.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Renault              +    2 laps
20.  D'Ambrosio    Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
21.  Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps
22.  Liuzzi        HRT-Cosworth               +    5 laps

Fastest lap: Webber, 1:29.703

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes         45
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              1


World Championship standings, round 4:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             

 1.  Vettel        93        1.  Red Bull-Renault          148
 2.  Hamilton      59        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          105
 3.  Webber        55        3.  Ferrari                    65
 4.  Button        46        4.  Renault                    42
 5.  Alonso        41        5.  Mercedes                   26
 6.  Massa         24        6.  Sauber-Ferrari              8
 7.  Petrov        21        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
 8.  Heidfeld      21        8.  Force India-Mercedes        4
 9.  Rosberg       20       
10.  Kobayashi      8       
11.  Buemi          6       
12.  Schumacher     6       
13.  Sutil          2       
14.  Di Resta       2       
       
All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

Red Bull

Vettel looked like he was giving himself too much to do by crashing heavily in wet Friday morning practice and missing the whole (dry) afternoon as a consequence. But that didn't stop him topping session three, taking another pole, and then leading from the outset, enjoying a comfortable margin over the rest of the field as he sped to another victory.

Webber wasn't far behind, but again was just not quite quick enough to edge ahead of his team-mate. Second on the grid, he was passed by Rosberg off the line, and by the time he had retaken the Mercedes, Vettel had made a break. Spent the rest of the race battling with Alonso, eventually reclaiming second with seven laps to go.

McLaren

The failure of a new component on the test rig and the loss of dry track time to Friday morning's rain meant McLaren decided not to run any upgrades at Istanbul, and it was no surprise to see a slight step back in relative pace as a result given the new packages others were bringing.

Hamilton and Friday afternoon pacesetter Button qualified fourth and sixth. The former attacked Webber for third on the first lap, but ran wide and lost two places. He then over-did it on his tyres in his eventually successful efforts to repass Button, was later delayed by nearly 15s with a wheel problem at a pitstop, yet still charged back to fourth.

Button also had a slight pit delay but his three-stop strategy allowed him to lead and got him up to fourth. But four-stoppers Hamilton and Rosberg had the extra grip to easily push him back to sixth, leaving Button wishing the team had been more bold and let him run longer stints earlier in the race to minimise his disadvantage at the end.

Ferrari

Until the race, it didn't look like the updated Ferrari was going to deliver much. Hydraulic and gearbox problems had given Alonso headaches in practice, and Massa needed a precautionary engine change after the final session. Alonso then qualified in his habitual fifth place, albeit slightly closer to pole in time terms than of late, while Massa made a mistake on his first Q3 run and opted to settle for 10th.

But in the grand prix, Alonso flew - overtaking his way up to second place by half-distance and not letting Vettel get too far away. He later lost out to Webber and the Red Bull's slightly better tyres, but third was still hugely encouraging.

Massa looked like he would be in top five contention too with great early pace, but two poor pitstops and an error at Turn 8 then plunged him into a load of midfield traffic just after a pit visit meant he was only 11th at the flag.

Mercedes

Right at the forefront of the battle for the top spot in practice, Mercedes appeared to be the team most likely to worry Red Bull this weekend. Rosberg qualified third, but Schumacher was perplexed to only be eighth having been within 0.001s of Vettel on Saturday morning.

The team would admit that getting its race set-up right - and sufficiently kind to the tyres - remains something of an issue, as though Rosberg got up to second off the line, he spent much of the opening half of the grand prix getting overtaken. But this was partly because he switched to hards for his second and third stints, whereas most saved them till the latter stages of the race, and sure enough, he was stronger late on, coming back through to fifth.

Schumacher took himself out of the top five fight by clipping Petrov as the Renault overtook him on lap two. The German's pace actually wasn't bad after that as he fought back from a wing change, but he seemed out of sorts in wheel to wheel battles, coming off second-best in tussles with Kobayashi, Sutil and Massa on the way to a disappointing 12th.

Renault

Seventh and ninth on the grid for Petrov and Heidfeld was actually less than they felt the car was capable of, leaving both disappointed on Saturday night.

They were right in the thick of things in the race, wheel-banging with each other (to Heidfeld's annoyance), and in Petrov's case, making contact with Schumacher too. There was no damage, and Petrov got up to fifth for a while thanks to good pace after relatively early stops. But their pace was not quite as strong as the top six contenders, and by the final laps they were battling back past three-stopper Buemi just to get as high as seventh and eighth, Heidfeld ahead.

Williams

Despite the mid-week announcement of major engineering changes exposing just how serious the situation at Williams is, the team had cause for optimism as Barrichello and Maldonado delivered an improved 11th and 14th on the grid - despite some of the Turkey upgrades being taken off due to teething troubles.

The start of the race looked good too, with Barrichello battling in the lower part of the top 10. But a lack of straightline speed and KERS problems saw him fade to 15th, with Maldonado only 17th after speeding in the pits.

Force India

Another race where Force India was just outside the top 10 on pure pace, and there weren't quite enough calamities ahead to get them in the points through consistency or racecraft. They started 12th and 13th, with Sutil finally managing to outqualify di Resta.

The latter posted his first retirement in F1 in the race, asked to park by his team as it suspected a wheel had not been fitted correctly in a pitstop. Sutil made a three-stop strategy work fairly successfully to fend off the recovering Perez for 13th.

Sauber

A disastrous qualifying saw Kobayashi unable to set a time at all due to a fuel system problem, and Perez unhappy with himself in 15th. The latter then made things worse for himself by wiping off his front wing on Maldonado's Williams on lap one, although by that time Kobayashi was already making great progress forwards.

Both used three-stop strategies (not counting Perez's repair stop) and showed very strong pace and tyre kindness yet again. Kobayashi got as high as fifth by staying out a long time before his first pitstop, and reckoned seventh was achievable had he not had to bring a stop forwards after banging wheels with Buemi and getting a puncture. He finished 10th. Perez fought back to 14th, inches behind 13th-placed Sutil.

Toro Rosso

After the good pace in China qualifying and strong form from Buemi in final practice (in which Alguersuari spun off), to only be 16th and 17th on the grid was a disappointment for Toro Rosso.

But Buemi produced one of his best races yet, making a three-stop strategy work superbly and putting himself in line for seventh until a late tyre vibration let the Renaults past. Despite saving extra tyres for the race, Alguersuari was dismayed to find he couldn't keep his rubber alive at all, so was only 16th.

Lotus was back to its position not quite on the midfield pace but ahead of its 2010 rivals. It was Kovalainen who took the 18th spot in qualifying as Trulli had DRS issues. But they swapped roles in the race, with Trulli 18th and Kovalainen 19th as he had to grapple with hydraulic problems for much of the distance.

HRT had Virgin in its sights this weekend, so Liuzzi was satisfied to outqualify Glock and take 21st on the grid, while Karthikeyan was frustrated not to do likewise as he qualified 23rd.

Virgin got back ahead in the race, with a very long pitstop due to wheel issues for Liuzzi meaning Karthikeyan was first HRT home as they finished 21st and 22nd.

The upgrade package didn't have the effect Virgin had hoped for, with Lotus still out of reach and Hispania a bigger threat than ever - and several of the new parts having to be removed after practice. D'Ambrosio did a good job to outqualify the puzzled Glock, who was also beaten by Liuzzi, but a penalty for a yellow flag misdemeanour in practice would drop the Belgian back from his 20th place on the grid.

Glock didn't even get to race due to a gearbox problem on the way to the grid, but D'Ambrosio used a two-stop strategy to take 20th behind the Lotus pair.

RACE DATA

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)