[RM Motorsports]

Two-week old track surface is spicing things up in Turkey. All the drivers are complaining about lack of grip and low track temperature. Looks like it will be another interesting race into the unknown.

Some slipping and sliding with FP1 & FP2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTHYB8SMiz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7GSI9YFd00

[tharian]

Adding the race start time as well since it's earlier than usual on Sunday.

[akash_v12]

Attaching all the details

[shibujp]

So the 2020 F1 circus reached Turkey. The first F1 race in Istanbul since 2011.

After the two free practices yesterday, the conclusions seem to be:

1. New surfacing means a very slippery circuit with Turn 1 regularly catching out drivers in this respect.
2. Low teamperatures do not help the grip factor any better and the hard tyres are especially prone to not being able to build up heat in them. We may see a pattern that we saw in Germany.
3. The softs are not much better either with many drivers including Leclerc and Verstappen reporting premature graining.
4. Leclerc looks quite potent and while Seb was close to him in FP1 was quite down the ranks in FP2.
5. The Silver Arrows looked quite out of the picture. Perhaps we have some internal sandbagging going on here with neither driver willing to reveal his hand prematurely to the other. As it is, only Bottas has an outside chance for delaying Hamilton's capture of his seventh WDC.

It is interesting setup. No reason why we should not be seeing the regular 3 on the podium.
Drive on,
Shibu.

[PGNarain]

A new and slipper track, plus rain!

Lance Stroll takes his career first pole and Hamilton at P6.

A very interesting qualifying and made more interesting because Q3 is coinciding with our Diwali Puja Muhurat!

What to do what to do?

[speedmiester]

Racing point takes pole with Stroll with Max in second. Perez has to settle for 3rd on the grid.
This will be a cracker of a race tomorrow with mixed grid.

[anb]

Kimi qualified ahead Bottas. Looks forward to an exciting race tomorrow with Mercedes starting from midfield.

[fz_rider]

Fortune favours the brave ! Racing point rolled the dice, and came out on top. Stroll is a pretty good damp weather driver, bettering his wet weather qualifying at Monza.
Verstappen is fantastic on this track, and a firm favourite for the win. I didn't see the qualifying, any idea why RedBull didn't send Max on inters ?

[shibujp]

I wonder how many of us would has thought it sane if some one had come and tol us that Stroll would be on pole today. Even more far fetched that it was a Racing Point 1-2. Well almost till Verstappen rained on that parade.

Stroll has been painted as Daddy's little boy, a guy in Formula 1 because his dad was indulging enough to buy his kid a whole racing team! But over this year Stroll has proved he has some chops to race with the big boys and this was the strongest retort yet. Conditions where the storied Mercedes looked pedestrian, Hamilton's superhuman skills came to naught and even the might Verstappen faltered, in comes this kid and put in a stonker of a lap in horrible conditions to get pole.

It was an inspired move for Racing Point to come out with intermediates when they did with Sergio Perez immediately banking provisional pole. By contrast Red Bull and Verstappen in particular looked out of sorts after putting on inters, reacting to Perez's pace.

Tommorrow might be a different story as race pace is a totally different ball game from qualifying but finally Racing Point has halted the dominance of Mecedes.

It's funny to note that the works teams of both Mercedes and Ferrari were behind their customer racing teams. Alfa Romeo too managed to qualify both cars in Q3 for the first time ever.

Albon would be relieved to finish close to Verstappen in P4 given his lackl lustre performances in the last few races. Though according to Sergio P3 is better than P2 as he felt it was the better side.

At P5 and P7 both the Renaults put up a good show and given his strong starts, Riccardo might have a thing or two to say about who makes it to Turn 1. All the more interesting as arch rivals McLaren has bad day with both drivers qualifying below P12.

Originally Posted by fz_rider

Fortune favours the brave ! Racing point rolled the dice, and came out on top. Stroll is a pretty good damp weather driver, bettering his wet weather qualifying at Monza.
Verstappen is fantastic on this track, and a firm favourite for the win. I didn't see the qualifying, any idea why RedBull didn't send Max on inters ?

Seems they did try it in FP1 or Q1 and did not find it good enough. Verstappen himself mentioned that the full wets felt much more better.

Drive on,
Shibu

[arun_josie]

Here is the grid after applying the penalties.

[speedmiester]

A champion's drive. Truly one of the best drives of Hamilton's career. If anyone asks Why Hamilton is a world champion and a great racer, this is the race that will answer all his critics.
Great drive by Perez and Ferrari's. Vettel was lucky to get his podium with the mistake by Leclerc.
All in all a great race.

If Perez doesn't get a drive next year, it will be a travesty. RedBull sign him already

[Abhi5868]

Two legends of their respective eras

Hamilton equals Schumacher's record of 7 world titles. Kudos to this ever consistent champ. Let's keep who's better than whom for another day.

[fastturtle10]

What a race that was! Lewis Hamilton's greatness on display today. Love him or hate him, the number of barriers he had to surpass to get to where he is at, a 7-time world champion, is simply incredible and inspiring for generations to come. The success Lewis managed to get as a POC is just incredible and is such an inspiration to not just a young adult like me but to so many people out there in the world. Congratulations to the champ and hopefully he'll be back for an 8th championship.

Great drive by Perez and the two Ferrari drivers who managed to get that tinbox onto the top 4. It was great to see Vettel on the podium once again but gutted for Charles who did really well until the last lap. Albon had a chance today to show Red Bull he got it in him but unfortunately didn't go as expected. Kudos to the 2 McLaren drivers as well for climbing up the ladder.

[FURY_44]

Originally Posted by Abhi5868

Two legends of their respective eras

Attachment 2080544
Hamilton equals Schumacher's record of 7 world titles. Kudos to this ever consistent champ. Let's keep who's better than whom for another day.

After qualifying yesterday social media was all guns blazing against Hamilton, saying where the rain-master was, he barely made it into Q2, 24hrs later there's deafening silence on how the hell he won the race. Oh man, the pleasure is intense.

I have been lucky enough to follow Hamilton from day 1 and to witness all of his wins and championships, I am not from the Schumacher era or whatever, frankly I never cared about the records. It's about time people put an end to Schumi vs Lewis shit talks, both are legends of different eras.

[fz_rider]

First of all What a race !
This is one of those races, which you can see all over again. So much happening on each lap, on the track. The track coupled with tricky conditions, tested the drivers to the limit. Until the second pitstop for Stroll, he looked set for win, but the way car was set, started eating tyres later, and the poor chap ended P8. There were so many moments where it looked like, either RedBull drivers can win, or a Ferrari had a chance, but it was the wise old head of Lewis, who incredibly won it. Verstappen was clearly the quickest on this circuit, had he made a good start, he could've won it hands down. Albon had such a good chance to prove to RedBull this weekend, sadly despite sparks of brilliance, he was one of the losers. Bottas was out of sorts, and one could expect a Fin to do well, where the conditions were like driving on ice. But he spun the most number of times on track. He was so frustrated, that he didn't let by Lewis for so long, when he was shown blue flags. McLaren had a good day, so did Ferrari, all of whom started downwards of P10.
Now coming to the three guys on podium. It was satisfying to see Perez and Vettel along side Lewis, both earning podium for a team with which they are associated for so long.

P3 Vettel :
It was good to see Seb to have a good start, going P11 to P4 within couple of corners at the start of the race. He defended beautifully at the start of the race, and though he was not the quickest all through the race, but had a good momentum, and kept gaining speed as he progressed. I genuinely thought I would not see Seb on podium this season, it was a happy surprise. Again it was a nice gesture by him to be the first to congratulate Lewis.

P2 Perez :
I would be surprised, if RedBull will still pass on the chance to hire Perez. He drove beautifully and his tyre management skills are second to just Hamilton. He managed his pace brilliantly, and was feisty in the end not to relinquish the second position. Great drive.

P1 Hamilton :
If you aren't an admirer of Lewis Hamilton, go watch this race again. I was one of those who thought that he only wins because he always has the fastest car. But past few years watching him, I respect him more. He pushes the limits further, and always has trick up his sleave. It's drive like these which makes him a great champion. He's driving more intelligently each passing year, and looks all the more unbeatable. Congratulations on becoming 7 times champion.

Image source: Formula 1 Twitter handle