Vettel takes commanding win in Turkey

Mark Webber eventually won a tough battle with Fernando Alonso to complete a Red Bull one-two, though Alonso at least got Ferrari back on the podium after its tough start to 2011.

The McLarens and Nico Rosberg were left to battle for the remaining top six places, producing some spectacular racing as Lewis Hamilton came through to fourth ahead of Rosberg and Jenson Button.

Vettel got a clean break immediately as Webber was jumped by Rosberg's Mercedes off the line. Hamilton tried to get around the outside of the Red Bull too at Turn 3, but ran wide and fell to sixth behind Alonso and Button.

It only took Webber five laps to cruise past Rosberg on the back straight using his DRS, but by that time Vettel was 4.4 seconds ahead and had enough pace to edge slightly further away even after that.

Alonso was past Rosberg as well two laps later, as the Mercedes found itself falling victim to a string of DRS passes in the opening stint. Webber could not shake the Ferrari off, and just after half-distance, Alonso used the trick wing to shoot down the outside of the Red Bull into the final complex to claim second.

He then pulled away for a while, but after their fourth and last stops, Webber was able to take a new set of hard tyres into the closing laps whereas Alonso's rubber was more tired. With seven laps to go, Webber repeated Alonso's earlier DRS move on the Ferrari to reclaim second, and though the Spaniard tried his utmost to re-pass on the outside both at Turn 1 and Turn 3, Red Bull's first one-two of the year was secure - though so was Ferrari's first podium of 2011.

Vettel was able to run much further on his tyres than his nearest rivals and looked like he might manage the distance on three stops rather than more popular four. But in the end he played it safe and mirrored his peers' strategy, maintaining an 8s cushion over Webber until they backed off on the final lap.

The most spectacular racing involved the McLarens, Mercedes, Felipe Massa and the Renaults. Button was the highest placed three-stopper, a strategy that allowed him to briefly lead and run fourth going into the final laps.

But Hamilton - recovering well after a delay at his second pitstop - and Rosberg were able to hunt down and pass Button using their fresher tyres late on, taking them to fourth and fifth as the 2009 champion had to settle for sixth.

Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi drove a superb race to come through from 16th on the grid to seventh on the same strategy as Button, but he too found it impossible to hold off the four-stoppers at the end, and fell to ninth behind the Renaults of Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov.

Kamui Kobayashi made a three-stop plan work well to surge from 23rd on the grid to 10th, while Massa failed to score for Ferrari. He lost crucial ground when he ran very wide at Turn 8 after his third stop and fell deep into a crowd of yet-to-stop midfielders, and then was further delayed with a right rear wheel issue at his last stop.

The Ferrari got back up to 11th with a tough late move on Michael Schumacher, who had earlier broken his front wing when he turned in on Petrov as the Renault passed him into the final complex.

PROVISIONAL 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