Red Bull: Vettel leads a one-sided one-two

2011 Turkish GP team review

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There was never any doubt who would be the ‘one’ in Red Bull’s one-two finish in Turkey.

Sebastian VettelMark Webber
Qualifying position12
Qualifying time comparison (Q3)1’25.049 (-0.405)1’25.454
Race position12
Laps58/5858/58
Pit stops44

Red Bull drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152535455565758
Sebastian Vettel95.26994.08293.76893.82793.76293.80193.82193.85394.20194.21894.314109.99194.17492.91993.16892.83793.11692.88493.05892.74992.992.57192.47392.75593.284107.37791.791.85392.19492.07792.08492.24892.13191.91591.62692.45692.20591.70891.59591.641107.48891.08391.06791.03691.32191.18690.804107.26890.68789.93790.3990.43390.58690.62190.5991.38491.45391.619
Mark Webber97.19994.52394.47294.27894.69694.06494.50994.09394.31294.625109.21392.70793.13193.17793.05693.0693.06893.04793.51393.82394.779108.38493.53692.98892.70492.36692.08892.06293.0892.32392.69992.67992.50993.03493.32107.09391.00591.07691.5691.25491.14391.1491.37691.24691.398106.889.94589.70389.76690.07690.66391.18190.35890.4190.72191.31891.66492.352

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Istanbul, 2011

Vettel gave his rivals a head start by missing almost all of Friday practice. But despite that Vettel was back to his imperious, dominant best following his China defeat.

After smashing up his RB7 at the exit of turn eight in the rain on Friday, Vettel, returned to business as usual on Saturday.

He was quickest in final practice, and set a mark four-tenths of a second faster than his team mate could match in qualifying. He didn’t even bother leaving the pits to defend his pole position time at the end of Q3.

There was no repeat of his first-lap mistake of 2009, and Webber never got anywhere near close enough to put him under pressure.

He said afterwards his fourth pit stop was a luxury taken only so that he wouldn’t be vulnerable if the safety car came out.

Sebastian Vettel 2011 form guide

Mark Webber

Joined Vettel on the front row of the grid for the first time this year but keeping Nico Rosberg behind from the dirty side of the grid was always going to be a challenge.

He relegated Rosberg back to second on lap six but by this time Vettel was already five seconds up the road.

Webber couldn’t match Vettel’s race pace and slipped behind Fernando Alonso in the middle of the race.

In the final stint Webber had the opportunity to take the position back and did so in a move which began at turn 12 and ended at turn three on the following lap.

Mark Webber 2011 form guide

2011 Turkish Grand Prix

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    Author information

    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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    31 comments on “Red Bull: Vettel leads a one-sided one-two”

    1. Given there is nothing that currently points to Webber being disadvantage by the team, it looks like Vettel got that momentum from going strong all the way since Spa.

      Looking a bit scary for the championship and race wins, but then again he is showing he can get the absolute maximum out of that car.

      Peter Windsor writes that he was on the DRS even before the third apex in Turkey.

      I am looking forward to see him throw that car around Monaco with the flippy flappy wing in qualifying, that might be quite a sight (if FOM will actually bother to show it).

      1. I noticed that on his pole lap on BBC, i created a forum page on it, but he was on it before the 4th apex.

      2. Absolute dominance. It may be little entertaining for the viewer, but he deserves every single bit of success he has had.

        1. Provided he has a car capable of podiums I can see him smashing more than half of the records Schumacher has set.

          But I thought that of Hamilton so I guess you can’t speak too soon.

          1. And he should, this years Red Bull is every bit the match for the 2004 Ferrari.

      3. He was absolutely nailing DRS. That video that Ell posted was brilliant.

    2. 5-4-3-2 for Mark so far this year… hope he completes it at Barcelona! He really needs it.

      He’s yet to do a single lap ahead of Vettel so far :(

      1. It does look like he’s getting on top of these tyres now, as evidenced by him not needing to pit quite so often anymore.

        So I would expect Vettel’s and Webber’s performances to become closer again. Perhaps not as close as last year, but not the “completely and utterly outperformed” that we’ve seen so far this year.

        1. But that would mean he has to be more daring on the DRS for qualifying, if he wants to catch Seb for pole.

      2. He was basically unbeatable there last year. So here’s hope for him to come back.
        Vettel is on a winning-streak. If it wasn’t for the strategy mistake in China we had a 4 of 4 by now.

        1. That was alot to do with the development of the car.
          IIRC Mark was able to drive around a new development of the RB6 more comfortably than Seb.

    3. By the way, Red Bull seems a looong way ahead of the rest in terms of pit stop performance. They were always faster than Ferrari, Mercedes and Mclaren at Turkey, even if everything went smoothly (most of the time) for the other teams.

      It’d be nice to see a comparision of the time wasted in the pit stops for each team and drivers.

      1. They are very slick aren’t they. They get never see them with pit stop troubles really.

        1. Weren’t Mercedes consistently the fastest stoppers in 2010?

          1. yeah, and Red Bull pitstops weren’t as smooth as this year.

            I remember more than once Mark pitting and having some tiny problem with one of the tyres (a couple of times it was the front right one, weirdly).

            This year tho, they’re just spot on.

        2. Not bad for a fizzy drink company.

        3. Wow just realised what a mess that sentence was, my keyboard has a habit of jumping between characters….

      2. Which begs the question why McLaren and Ferrari are so sloppy this year. Have there been any major changes in crew management in either of those teams this year?

        1. Pat fry left Mclaren for Ferrari last year, so I’m guessing at the end of last year Mclaren had to accommodate for his departure.Chris Dyer has a different role in Ferrari as well, but its hard to say if it was these small management shuffles that are responsible for Mclaren and Ferrari’s sloppy start.

    4. Great stuff from Mark. Happy for both him and Alonso.

      Vettel was on form again. Usually I don’t vote the race winner as driver of the weekend but i’m tempted to this time. That level of dominance should not go unnoticed.

      0.4s. Outstanding.

    5. Webber is becoming a very entertaining driver to watch over the last couple of race.His move over Alonso was great & also he had to defend that for the last stages with no KERS.Red Bull so far have the car running well,their drivers are behaving well on the circuit all they need to work is the KERS,or may be they won’t.I think they may only use the KERS system as many predicted only at the start then they will turn that off.

      1. If I was the head of Red Bull at this stage of the season, I’d be looking at scraping KERS and concentrating on other areas.

    6. has anyone noticed that webber seems uncharacteristically happy? he did another fist pump to the team after finishing second which he does not normaly do. i think hes really enjoying his driving but its not like hes been terrible 5,4,3,2 is his best start to a season weirdly so it really not over by a long shot.

      webber issues this year.
      – driving a RB7 completely designed around vettle.
      – poor kers reliability in just about every race(failed when overtaking alonso)which is why he had did not fly past him.
      – tyre not suiting him (getting on top of it thou)
      – is his 3rd stint he ran over something which shredded his left rear i spot this on the tv. which is why he was so slow then.

      all in all i think hes done a good job probly better then Button and Felipe.

      1. We’ve yet to see Vettel qualify badly and having to work hard for a result, most of the time he’s in clear air at the front of the field and using strategy to gain position.

        It remains to be seen whether or not he’s improved his race craft. He hasn’t really had any opportunities to develop it, so it will be interesting to see him in that position in the coming races.

        I may be biased, but I think that Webber is stronger than he is in the race, but Vettel is absolutely dominant in qualifying.

      2. The RB6 was designed completely around Vettel as well. But the comment at the time was they had similar driving styles, so Mark didn’t lose much in that.

        I think the big difference in quali is DRS, Vettel just does it better. I know they have slightly different car balance (due to Webber being taller and heavier, although driver + car weights are similar, or were last year), but that doesn’t explain the time difference in qualifying. Last year the difference in quali between them was small, I think it averaged to less than 0.06s across the season. This year it’s half a second.
        I want to see onboard comparisons (with DRS notification) for Webber and Vettel, that will show it up easily.

        But he does finally seem to be getting closer, but the difference in quali is killing him. And it was at Barcelona where he won his first race last year, so here’s to hoping.

        1. The silver lining is that Webber has more than twice the points he had this time last year. Okay, Seb has a smidgeon over twice as many too, but after this stage of the season Vettel was to suffer no more blow-ups until Korea and Webber led him in the standings for most of the season. If Mark can start beating him, making the mistakes creep back into Vettel’s driving, you never know.

    7. What’s the matter Keith, Mark Webber turn you down personally for an interview or something? I think it’s plain to see how strong Vettel is at the moment, but what’s the reasoning beind your passive aggressive statements towards Webber in recent RBR related articles?

      1. Ehhhhhhh?

        More and more people here are looking for arguements where there aren’t any…

        1. welcome to the internet

      2. Vettel had the beating of Webber in Turkey. Again. Nothing more to it than that.

        I don’t see anything in what I’ve written that might be termed “passive aggressive” instead of simple criticism of a driver who didn’t do as well as his team mate.

    8. As long as Super Seb keeps driving for RBR when F1-guru Adrian Newey is still in charge he’ll keep on winning 1st places. #tigerblood

      Vettel is on top of Webber (No.2 driver) as is Rosberg on top of der Schumi.

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