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Rediff.com  » Sports » Images: Turkey on Hamilton's platter

Images: Turkey on Hamilton's platter

Last updated on: May 30, 2010 22:19 IST

Image: McLaren's Lewis Hamilton (left) and girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger with the trophy
Photographs: Reuters

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton roared to his first win of the Formula One season in Turkey on Sunday after his Red Bull rivals drove each other off the track while heading for a one-two finish. Hamilton's victory ended a run of nine races without appearing on the top step of the podium, the 25-year-old's last win coming in Singapore last September while he was still champion.

"It was great to watch, like an action movie in 3D," declared Hamilton, who had been right behind the pair.

"We pushed them and they cracked," world champion Jenson Button's race engineer told him over the team radio as he crossed the line 2.6 seconds behind Hamilton.

Despite being handed the one-two, McLaren came perilously close to a similar nightmare with Hamilton and Button running side by side and banging wheels in a furious battle for the lead.

"To get a our second one-two is fantastic," said Hamilton, whose pop singer girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger was pacing nervously around the garage during the closing laps.

"Every time she comes to a race, I seem to win," added the Briton.

'It was a disaster'

Image: Red Bull's Mark Webber celebrates on the podium after a third place finish

In race that started with Red Bull on pole and ended in bitter recrimination, championship leader Mark Webber and team-mate Sebastian Vettel collided 18 laps from the finish while first and second to gift McLaren the one-two instead.

"It was a disaster," Australian Webber, unsmiling and clearly smarting despite finishing third to extend his overall lead, said in typically blunt fashion.

Webber, who had been heading for his third win in a row after starting on pole position, leads the championship by five points from Button.

The McLaren duo moved up the standings with Button on 88 points and Hamilton third with 84.

McLaren ousted Red Bull from the top of the constructors' standings by a single point.

The day's big loser was Vettel, the 22-year-old German who had started the afternoon level on points with Webber but paid the price for trying to pass down the inside on lap 40.

The two cars collided, Vettel's right rear tyre deflated and he spun off into retirement while Webber went off track but managed to come back.

 Vettel slumped to fifth overall, 15 points behind Webber.

Reb Bull looked poised for their third one-two of the season

Image: Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel (centre) walks after crashing out during the Turkish F1 Grand Prix

The German twirled his finger around his head as he trudged away from the car as if to say 'crazy' while team boss Christian Horner watched from the pit lane wall and shook his head in disbelief.

Red Bull's designer and technical heaad Adrian Newey simply buried his head in his hands.

"I'm not very happy now after something like this happens," Vettel told BBC television. "We are all pretty much the same speed and pace and I felt I was able to go quicker.

"I dived down the left, I had the corner so I was trying to focus on the braking and I lost the car. We are a team and we have to respect that fact."

Until then, Red Bull had looked to be heading for their third one-two of the season and second in a row.

Webber, whose lead had rarely amounted to more than a fraction of a second, held off Hamilton for lap after lap until Vettel got ahead at the pitstops.

The German had passed Hamilton at the start, when the Briton suffered wheelspin and made a sluggish getaway, but ceded the place before the lap was out.

Fourth place finish for Schumacher

Image: Michael Scumacher

Michael Schumacher finished fourth for Mercedes, the seven-times champion a hefty 31.1 seconds behind Hamilton, with team mate and fellow-German Nico Rosberg fifth.

 Poland's Robert Kubica was sixth for Renault and Felipe Massa gave Ferrari some points at least on their 800th grand prix start with a disappointing seventh ahead of Spanish team mate and double world champion Fernando Alonso.

Germany's Adrian Sutil was ninth for Force India while Japan's Kamui Kobayashi handed Sauber a first point of the season in 10th place.

Source: REUTERS
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