The 2009 Turkish Grand Prix (officially the 2009 Formula 1 ING Turkish Grand Prix) was the seventh motor race of the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was held on 7 June 2009 at Istanbul Park, Tuzla, Turkey.
The race was won by Jenson Button, with Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing completing the podium. Vettel had qualified on pole but a mistake on the first lap scuppered his chances of victory.
Report
Background
Jenson Button led the Drivers' Championship by 16 points from his teammate at Brawn, Rubens Barrichello going into the race, while Brawn GP led the Constructors' Championship by 43.5 points from Red Bull.
Tyre supplier Bridgestone selected the hard and soft tyres for the Grand Prix weekend.
Practice
In Friday practice 1, Williams, Ferrari and McLaren performed well, Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Jarno Trulli posting the top 3 times. Brawn, Toyota, Red Bull and Renault ran mid field during the session with BMW and STR backmarking.
In Friday practice 2, Williams, Renault and Red Bull were the most consistent performers, Heikki Kovalainen, Fernando Alonso and Robert Kubica posted the top 3 times. Ferrari, Brawn and Toyota ran mid field during the session with Force India and STR backmarking.
After both Friday practice sessions, individual performances were quite mixed, the only consistent constructor was Williams as BMW and McLaren saw mixed results, while top running teams Brawn and Red Bull ran upper mid field for both sessions.
Qualifying
Sebastian Vettel dominated the qualifying session on Saturday 6 June 2009, setting the fastest time in all three parts of qualifying to claim his second pole position of the season, and third of his career.
The first knockout session, to eliminate the five slowest cars, claimed the scalp of reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton – only the second time the Englishman had failed to progress from the first session. Also eliminated were Nelson Piquet Jr., Sébastien Buemi, Giancarlo Fisichella and Sébastien Bourdais. They all produced times in the 1:28's.
In the second knockout session, the top 10, who progressed to the final shoot-out for pole, were separated by just 0.4 seconds, with Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg just sneaking through. Nick Heidfeld, Kazuki Nakajima, Timo Glock, Heikki Kovalainen and Adrian Sutil were knocked out, Heidfeld qualifying 11th for the second race in succession.
The third session to determine pole position was a tense battle with numerous drivers thinking they had claimed pole only for their time to be bettered.
Vettel was on provisional pole with a time of 1:28.801, with just a few minutes of the session remaining. Vettel's team mate Mark Webber then posted a 1:28.6, only for Button to go two-tenths of a second quicker after the chequered flag fell. Vettel, however, still had one lap left in him and went quicker again, reclaiming pole with a 1:28.316. Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello also improved on his final lap, moving up to third position, ahead of Webber, with a 1:28.5.
Race
History would favour Vettel, the previous four Turkish Grands Prix having been won from pole position. Button however had two more laps of fuel in qualifying, meaning he would have been on pole fuel-corrected.
Vettel initially made a strong start from pole, beating Button into the first corner. Vettel then ran wide at the tenth turn, gifting Button the lead. Button's Brawn team-mate had a less fortunate start, a clutch problem dropping him from third on the grid to thirteenth by the end of the first lap. Webber was running third, having initially been passed by Jarno Trulli before the Australian regained his position. Felipe Massa had moved up to fifth position, ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso. Reigning world champion Hamilton had lost a place on the first lap, meaning he was running in 17th position out of 20 runners.
At the front Button began to open up a lead over Vettel but the action was in the midfield, Nico Rosberg getting past both Ferraris to move up to fifth by lap six. On lap eight, Barrichello spun trying to pass Heikki Kovalainen after a wheel-to-wheel battle from Turns 9 to 16. The Brazilian dropped to seventeenth but quickly regained two places before losing part of his front wing in a clash with Adrian Sutil on lap eleven. Barrichello pitted on lap thirteen, conversely teammate Button had serenely opened up a 5.6 second lead at the front of the race.