Hail Turkey!
Kudos to Turks for making such an amazing race venue. The track is great, providing lots of overtaking opportunities, lots of places where driver can easily slide off - thus making it very driver-oriented track. We need more of these.
The starting line up was promising and it delivered. Both Renaults started their usual best. It seems to me that Renault cars accelerates quicker and both Alonso and Fisico utilize this to the max. Fisico was able to get pass Kimi and Alonso almost did it. However, soon after Fisico made a small mistake giving Kimi a small overtaking window he eagerly took. From that moment on, Kimi was his usual untouchable. Clearly at front and no errors on this very demanding track. He even said “it was easy”. Crazy Finn. :)
There was lots of action and overtaking all over the field. BAR proved they were strong - it’s too bad that Button made that mistake in Q - he would have battled for the podium. Ferrari was utterly bad. Nothing else to it - they are completely off the mark this year. BMW Williams had a hard time with tires - 2x2 rear right tyre failures are rarely seen.
Towards the end, everything was going dreamy for the McLaren, until last two laps. First Monteiro brakes late (yes Tiago, it’s your mistake) and spins Montoya, then in last lap Juan Pablo goes very wide and gives Alonso two unearned points. What caused Montoya’s “walk in park” remains slightly unknown. The mechanics told Kimi over Team Radio after the race that Juan had flat-spot on the tyre - I could not see that. Montoya said that back diffuser was destroyed completely in the accident. That part of the car provides necessary grip to go through high-speed corners. Montoya himself said I went through the first few corners and the car felt alright so I went as I did every lap into turn eight and just went off. It’s the only fast corner here and I had no rear grip.
After the race Alonso looked pretty dissatisfied, which I consider rather strange. Yes, they were not in the same league as McLaren, but he still got what he needs to wins the Championship. Even more than that.