Turn eight catches Vettel out in wet first practice

2011 Turkish GP first practice

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Sebastian Vettel’s Turkish Grand Prix weekend got off to a poor start as he crashed on his fifth lap of the track.

The world champion lost control of his car on the exit kerb on the way out of turn eight and spun into the barriers on the inside of the corner. The session was stopped while his car was recovered.

Vettel was running on intermediate tyres at the time in a wet session, shortly after fresh rain had begun to fall. He had already run wide at turn 11 on an earlier lap.

Several other drivers went off at that corner including Michael Schumacher (twice), Pastor Maldonado, Sebastien Buemi and Timo Glock.

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time around halfway through the session when the track was at its least wet. But the Ferrari driver found the wet tyres wore out very quickly.

The Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Schumacher were second and third, ahead of the two Renaults.

As the session ended Maldonado had a second spin at turn 11, briefly caught the car but lost control again and backed into the barrier.

Jenson Button only did a slow lap at the end of the session to do a practice start, and team mate Lewis Hamilton didn’t even do that after stopping at the pit lane exit.

HRT’s Narain Karthikeyan stopped early in the session with an engine problem but was able to re-join later on.

Pos.CarDriverCarBest lapGapLaps
15Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’38.67013
28Nico RosbergMercedes1’40.0721.40214
37Michael SchumacherMercedes1’40.1321.46218
49Nick HeidfeldRenault1’40.3381.6689
510Vitaly PetrovRenault1’40.4011.73110
616Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’40.4211.75116
76Felipe MassaFerrari1’40.6972.02714
819Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’41.0942.42418
918Sebastien BuemiToro Rosso-Ferrari1’41.1782.50822
1014Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes1’41.3472.67716
112Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’42.5643.8945
1212Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’42.5973.9277
1315Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’43.5254.85511
1411Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’43.9135.2435
1521Jarno TrulliLotus-Renault1’43.9865.3166
1623Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’44.7876.11720
171Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’44.9546.2844
1824Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’45.1836.51315
1925Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’45.2376.56711
2022Narain KarthikeyanHRT-Cosworth1’48.4619.7918
2120Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’51.67613.0066
2217Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’55.79117.12113
234Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes2’00.66621.9964
243Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-MercedesNo time1

2011 Turkish Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    71 comments on “Turn eight catches Vettel out in wet first practice”

    1. Did they show a replay of Maldonado’s crash? My stream ended as soon as the clock hit zero, strangely…

      1. Yes, they did, he just gently touched the barrier with his rear.

      2. Yeah, he went off at the usual spot at turn 11 before he spun on the runoff area and slid across the track to hit the barriers on the other side.

      3. I think I saw it 4 times!

        Just the rear sliding away and him coming to a stop with the back having cracked against the barriers before, not that special.

      4. It looked like he kept his foot in it. He intitially backed off to try and correct the spin, but then thought I’m ok to accelerate and that sent him off to the otherside into the barriers.

        Looked like a silly mistake, but I could be wrong

      5. It was a double spin…

    2. Ferrar is said to bring new wings but I could not see anything new in the Front Wing.
      Wats new ?

      1. Well it did help them set good times, no :-D

      2. Probably not risking the new parts in the rain.

        1. There would be no point in trying them I guess. The drivers won’t be used to the handling and they won’t be able to correlate the data anyway.

      3. They did show up briefly with a wing that had a camera mount halfway the wing-pillars, on the inside; but I too didn’t see it clear enough to detect a notable difference with the other wing.

      4. Minimal changes.

    3. That was quite some crash by Vettel. But it doesn’t look too serious, except they haven’t enough spares.

      1. Im not so sure. That was a big impact at high speed and it damaged 3 of the 4 corners of the car. I’d be surprised if they get him out for the start of P2

        1. Youtube Link

          1. Thanks. That won’t be easy to fix, webbers got a chance this weekend.

            1. Haha,..it would be funny if they gave Webbers car to Vettel,.. :D

            2. Don’t doubt that!

          2. Thanks for the link, that’s a pretty hefty shunt!

            A little bit too confident I think there…too much kerb in that weather.

        2. Quite bad damage.

      2. does anybody thought that lauda’s accident, was no less hard than the one vettel had today? The difference is that one cheeted death and vettel just had to seat out pracice 2.
        Pretty big difference in consecuences to an error. One driver’s, other mechanical.

    4. nothing conclusive can be drawn from this session..

      but liuzzi comfortably ahead of Virgins..

      1. HRT go faster than a red bull! Yes i know, but still afew weeks ago they didn;t even get within 107%

        1. Yeah, obviously there’s a perfectly good explanation….. but….

          I just saved a screen shot of that to the desktop. :D

          1. Hey come on HRT are going to get a podium this weekend.

      2. Maybe HRT are improving, maybe it´s just a wet practice session, whatever, being in front looks better than being behind (Virgin).

    5. can’t remember the last time Vettel crashed his car in practice…

      1. Yeah. He generally crashes only in races..:))

        1. And other cars.

          1. And like, once.

            1. Twice he has crashed in to another car instead of overtaking it.

    6. Apparently the FIA “car legality director” (Don’t quite know his actual position) came straight to the Red Bull garage and had a good look all around the car…. Wonder what that was all about.

      1. He’s a fan.

      2. According to some people speculating on forums, there were some ‘wires’ found coming out of the Red Bull front wing.

        1. This is a very interesting prospect.

        2. Wires? As in heating tech perhaps? I know there was some talk of them utilising the temperature of the carbon fibre so it becomes flexible.

          1. Interesting to see thermal footage of the red bull cars when the wing is flexing then.

        3. ScarbsF1 posted a pic on twitter of the wires. Link here…

          http://www.formula1.com/wi/sutton/2010/d11tur452.jpg

          Quite hard to spot with all the grass and muck on the floor but you can make them out. No idea what they are, i presumed they where tethers or something but i know nothing so hey ho.

          1. Last year you were allowed adjustable front wings so maybe this is just a heritage thing? They probably build them in the same way so that if the rules change again, they don’t have to re-eingineer their manufacturing process.

            1. I’m quite sure on the Red Bull F1 car, not one millimetre is left perfected.

    7. Keith, not that it matters much but Schumacher’s best time is shown on the f1 live timing as a 1:40.132. He stayed in the same position but improved on his previous best by a couple of tenths at the end of the session.

      1. Must’ve missed that late improvement, thanks, have changed it.

    8. So the new “evil eye” helmet not quite working for Vettel…

      1. Not yet… look at qualifying!

    9. Apparently Esteban Gutierrez has just done the same thing as Vettel in the GP2 practice session currently underway.

      1. Williams F1!
        6th May 2011, 13:15

        This guy should just stick to using the same helmet like everyone elese does.

    10. Mclaren there usual cocky self. I cannot understand the reasoning in sitting in the pits for the session. They are missing out on quality track time, especially wet weather running that none of the teams no much about!

      1. They are missing out on quality track time

        They were missing out on wet track time, which is not much use for testing developments.

        And then there’s the risk potential. Remember what happened to Hamilton in a wet practice in Hockenheim last year? Apparently Vettel didn’t…

        1. How do you suspect this will hinder Vettel’s weekend?

          His car looked fairly bent on the truck, there is massive front damage and substantial rear damage, also the possibility of a damaged gearbox (as we have seen when Vettel hit Button on the side).

          1. Vettel to get Webbers front wing?

            Only joking.

        2. yeah plus they did a fair bit of wet weather testing during pre season if i remember correctly, so unlike red bull they probably already have all the data they need on the tires

        3. Yes they might not be able to test there new developments properly but what if it’s raining for the full weekend? Understanding the tyres is vital this year surely?

    11. I think Alonso did his fastest time on intermediates, so I suppose it isn’t a huge surprise they wore out quite quickly.

      It will be interesting to see if McLaren get any advantage from saving their wet tyres for qualifying and the race.

    12. Ricciardo out performed his team mate again, Good work. That must be his first time in a F1 car.

      1. In a f1 car in the wet sorry****

      2. I was impressed by Ricciardo in that practice session. The detail he was giving back to the team was brilliant.

        Got to be in for a driver come the 2nd half of the season.

      3. Ricciardo has been pretty impressive on Fridays thus far. I think Buemi or Alguersuari getting benched for a couple of races is inevitable

        1. So long as its Alguersuari, who is less good at delivering results.

    13. TheVillainF1
      6th May 2011, 10:44

      I did also see what appeared to be 2 wires coming out of the damaged RBR nose, dunno if it is normal damage or whether that strikes some of the tech experts ass odd. Does make me think back of the bubble nose the Mclaren’s got out in testing…perhaps the mystery of the flexi wing is being uncovered? Would be very interesting to hear a follow up on what the FIA rep was doing in the red bull garage

      1. If they are heating up the carbon fibre to get it to flex…..is this illegal??

        1. Mouse_Nightshirt
          6th May 2011, 12:14

          The heating wouldn’t be, as I don’t think there’s anything in the rules against that, but if it causes the wing to flex, then it would be in violation of the movable aerodymanics rule I’d guess.

          I can’t see the wires personally. I’ll need a better quality pic.

          And here’s a theory, maybe the KERS unit is providing the current needed for the heat deformation?

          1. Mouse_Nightshirt
            6th May 2011, 12:15

            http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dvcc7VgJQ5v9?__site=daylife&q=Turkey

            There. I see it now. Are they actually wires/an element?

            1. Keith what would the likely repercussions be if the Red Bull wing is found to have heating elements that allow it to flex?

          2. I had a funny feeling weeks ago that they might be using heating elements to heat the resin in the carbon fibre, the wires pointing inwards would suggest they might be using a expansion type joint configuration where the centre piece slips over itself like a train track expansion joint. Unlikely, but that wing is certainly springy X-)

            1. Edit…soz

              The centre section between the uprights could be layered like a rifle shuffled deck of cards, interlaced with heating element ( 2 fat cables protruding from the bottom of each upright ) being monitered by the thermister/thermostat ( thinner cable from the right hand upright).

    14. Damn, slept through it. Luckily it doesn’t look like I missed much!

    15. Nice to see Mercedes up so high…if we have a wet race/qualifying it could be a very interesting weekend indeed.

    16. That was a costly mistake by Vettel.This incident may hamper his preparation for the weekend as we know he won’t participate in FP2,which was a dry session.

    17. I was surprised to see how much the cars were bouncing at the end of the straight leading to T12. As this is the DRS straight/corner, people will obviously try to overtake there, but will the bumps lead to possible collisions? Having said that the bumps run perpendicular to the direction of travel so perhaps not. But you never know…

    18. uhhh i clicked on the practice results for FP2 but it directed me here???

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