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Jenson Button led from turn 9 on lap 1 till the end of the race at Istanbul, creating a bit of history in the process by becoming only the fifth driver ever (including Schumacher) to win six out of the first seven races in a Formula 1 season by taking the chequered flag at the Turkish Grand Prix.

Starting from P2 for a change, Button failed to catch Sebastian Vettel going into the first corner, but a mistake from the Red Bull man as he fought oversteer gave Button the chance to leap ahead, and the Brit didn't need t o be asked twice.

Vettel struggled right through the race, seemingly fighting the car as it threatened to get away from him again on lap 2. A three stop strategy pushed Vettel further down the track, and he ended up in third place behind Button and his own teammate Mark Webber, who was amazingly on a two stopper.

The result sees Button extending his lead at the top of the Drivers Championship to 26 points over teammate Rubens Barrichello heading into his home Grand Prix at Silverstone. Barrichello made a disastrous start to the race as his car rolled slowly off the start and finish straight due to a clutch failure.However, thanks to the anti-stall mechanism it finally kicked into life leaving the Brazilian in 13th place.

A minor collision with Heiki Kovalainen on lap 9 saw him fall further back to 17th. Barrichello called it a day on lap 48. Amazingly this was Brawn GPs first retirement of an unbelievably reliable debut season.

While the battle of the teammates for 2nd podium place ensued, world champion Lewis Hamilton was battling a very unresponsive car in the middle of the field. Hamilton filled up his tank completely, and ran a brave one-stopper, but still only managed to finish 13th.

The decision which forced him to take extra care not to overcook his tyres, backfired as the Briton failed to compete on the track, and was overtaken pretty much at will by anyone who dared try.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli put in another professional performance to finish in fourth place. Nico Rosberg had his best race of the season so far, ending up in fifth place while Felipe Massa drove a fantastic race to bring his car home in sixth.

The BMW of Robert Kubica and the other Toyota of Timo Glock rounded off the point scoring positions.

The Force Indias had a forgettable visit to Turkey with Giancarlo Fisichella being the first driver to retire from the race, that too after just 5 laps. Adrian Sutil didn't fare much better, ending the race in second last place on the track, a lap down in 17th.

The only real battle of consequence on the track was the two Red Bulls going hammer and tongs in second and third. Vettel was the quicker of the two for most of the race, but his extra pit stop pushed him behind Webber, a position from which he never really recovered. The two fought right down to the chequered flag, with the 32-year old Australian holding off his considerably younger teammate for 2nd place. That result also enables Webber to reduce the gap between the two to just 1.5 points in the battle for third place in the drivers championship.
Speaking after the race champion-elect Jenson Button said, ""Today the car was the best it's felt all year, it was immense, it just keeps getting better, maybe it suits this track more than others. I don't think the strategy really mattered in this race, we were just really quick."

Should he keep going at this smoldering pace, who's going to deny Button win number 7 out of 8!

 

File Photograph Copyright: Coldtrackdays.com

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