2020 Turkish Grand Prix

## Lap Leader

The **2020 Turkish Grand Prix** was a Formula 1.5 motor race held on 15 November 2020 at Istanbul Park in Tuzla, Istanbul. It was the fourteenth round of the 2020 World Championship, and the eighth Turkish Grand Prix. The event was added to the revised 2020 calendar after other planned races were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 58-lap race had low-grip conditions due to a smooth new track surface and rainfall before the start. Racing Point driver Lance Stroll took pole position and led most of the race, but finished sixth after his car was damaged. Teammate Sergio Perez took the win ahead of the two Ferrari drivers of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

## Background

The meeting, took place over the weekend of 13–15 November at the Istanbul Park circuit, and was the fourteenth of the seventeen rounds of the 2020 World Championship. It was the eighth Turkish Grand Prix held since the inaugural running of the event during the 2005 season, and the first since the 2011 season. The race had not previously taken place in the autumn. No undercard races were held. The event was privately funded.

The venue is located in Tuzla, Istanbul, which is in the outskirts of the city on the Asian side of the Bosporus Strait. It was the first Grand Prix of the year to take place outside of Europe. The race took place two weeks after the previous round at the Imola circuit in Italy and a fortnight before the following round at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. While teams had driven their lorries to previous editions, the plan for the 2020 meeting was for teams to fly their cargo to Turkey.

A lap of the fourteen turn Istanbul Park circuit measures 5.338 kilometres (3.317 mi) in length. A second drag reduction system (DRS) zone was added on the straight between the final and first turns, with the goal of aiding overtaking. The detection point was established after turn thirteen. During the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix, only the DRS zone located between turns eleven and twelve was used. Track limits were monitored at the exits of the first, sixth, and fourteenth corners. Lap times were deleted if drivers left the track at these points and drivers could be penalised for repeated violations.

The venue, which had not hosted a major racing event for several years, was renovated in the lead up to the race. Barriers and kerbs were upgraded, and the track was resurfaced. Tilke Engineers & Architects oversaw the resurfacing. The organisers of the Grand Prix hoped that it would lead to future events being scheduled for the venue, although they would not want to hold them during Ramadan. While the event was popular with competitors and television audiences, low in-person attendance figures and the high cost of hosting the race were responsible for its absence from the previous eight seasons.

The drivers and teams were the same as those on the season entry list, with no additional stand-in drivers for either the race or practice. Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto did not attend the event as he tested the feasibility of managing the team remotely. The Alfa Romeo team's participation in this race marked the 500th Grand Prix entry by a team run by the Sauber Motorsport company.

### **Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic**

The 2020 season was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the originally scheduled Grands Prix were cancelled or postponed, prompting the sport's governing body, the FIA, to draft a new calendar. The Turkish Grand Prix was added to the calendar in late August 2020. The race was held on the same date that the cancelled Brazilian Grand Prix was originally due to take place on. Initially, it was planned that as many as 100,000 spectators could attend. However, due to a surge of COVID-19 cases in the country, organisers announced that the Grand Prix would take place behind closed doors.

Social distancing measures were put in place at the event and workers were obliged to always wear masks. The Williams team made personnel changes after several workers either tested positive for COVID-19 or showed possible symptoms of COVID-19, with 24 workers who usually remain at the factory substituting for their absent colleagues at the Grand Prix. Acting team principal Simon Roberts did not attend the Grand Prix after testing positive for the coronavirus, although he did not fall ill as a result. Mario Isola (the head of Pirelli's tyre programme) tested positive for the coronavirus on the day of the race and went into self-isolation. Three other workers tested positive for the coronavirus over the course of the week the race took place.

### **Tyres**

Sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli brought their three hardest dry weather tyre compounds – the C1, C2, and C3. Two types of wet weather tyre, known as "wets" and "intermediates", were also available. Following Friday's practice sessions, Isola said that Pirelli had not been aware of the resurfacing which had been done to the track two weeks prior, and that if they had known, they would have brought softer tyre compounds which would suit the smoother surface better. Pirelli had noted the increased forces that tyres were subject to as the cars became faster over the course of the season.

The lower than expected levels of friction between the tyres and the tarmac meant that drivers consistently struggled to maintain the tyre temperature needed for the tyres to operate efficiently, limiting the speeds that could be achieved. Tyres being at the correct temperature could allow a driver to complete a lap more than five seconds quicker than if the tyres were too hot or cold. The tarmac evolved slowly over the weekend because no supporting events were held where rubber could be laid down.

### **Championship Permutations**

Daniel Ricciardo lead the championship going into the weekend by 30 points over Sergio Perez. This meant that Perez would not be able to take the lead of the championship at any point of the weekend as the most amount of points on offer was 26. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was third in the championship, just 3 points behind the Mexican driver of Perez. Lance Stroll was sat in 5th place in the championship after not scoring any points for multiple races on 117.

In the teams championship, Racing Point were leading on 285 points, marginally ahead of French outfit Renault on 273. McLaren, the reigning champions, were sat in third just 27 points behind Renault on 246 points. Ferrari were also close to McLaren in fourth place with 220 points.

## Practice

The first of Friday's two ninety-minute practice sessions ended with Charles Leclerc fastest ahead of Pierre Gasly by just 0.036 seconds. Teammate Sebastian Vettel finished the session in third. The session was briefly suspended after Leclerc hit a bollard during its opening minutes. Carlos Sainz Jr. stopped on track as his McLaren broke down.

Several drivers had spins during the first practice session, and all struggled for speed, with drivers stating there was a lack of grip following the track being resurfaced. Bitumen seeping from the fresh tarmac and the cold November weather were amongst the contributing factors. The event organisers washed the track before the session, and the circuit had not finished drying by the start of the session. Lap times in first practice were approximately ten seconds slower that those set at the circuit's previous Grand Prix meeting and twenty seconds slower that the lap times that were expected in qualifying.

The second Friday practice session ended with Leclerc fastest ahead of Kvyat and Gasly. Rubber building up on the tarmac contributed to the higher grip levels.

The third and final one hour practice session was held in wet conditions on Saturday morning and ended with Leclerc fastest ahead of Ocon and Norris. Several drivers criticised the track conditions during this session. Leclerc had a minor collision with Renault driver Esteban Ocon, while McLaren driver Lando Norris spun off the circuit.

## Qualifying

Qualifying was held on the Saturday afternoon, starting at 15:00 local time (UTC+03:00). The air temperature at the start of qualifying was 11.9 °C (53.4 °F) and the track temperature was 13.6 °C (56.5 °F). The session was defined by a tricky low grip track surface and damp weather conditions, with the first subsession being suspended for 45 minutes as a result.

### **Qualifying Report**

Racing Point driver Lance Stroll set the fastest time of the final subsession to take Pole Position. Stroll credited his experience of driving on ice in Canada as helping him in the difficult conditions. The team were able to set up their cars to work well in the slippery conditions, with Stroll's teammate Sergio Pérez qualifying in second place after spending most of the final subsession at the top of the time sheets.

Two other teams saw their drivers progress to the final part of qualifying. The Renaults of Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo appeared to be stronger on the full wet tyres than the intermediates. Ricciardo qualified in thid after spending the whole session on the full wets, while Ocon qualified fourth after struggling on the intermediates. Ocon changed back to full wet tyres towards the end of the final segment, but only had enough time for a single lap and could not build up tyre temperature quickly enough. The Alfa Romeo team had their best qualifying of the season with Räikkönen 5th and Antonio Giovinazzi sixth.

Despite being fastest in every practice session, Leclerc could only qualify tenth, being knocked out in the second subsession. Vettel outqualified him in the other Ferrari, claiming 8th position. Vettel had not outqualified Leclerc at any of the previous ten Grands Prix. McLaren had their worst qualifying of the year so far, with neither of their drivers qualifying in Q3. Neither McLaren driver was able to get their car's tyres up to the needed temperature. Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly qualified 11th after narrowly making it into the second part of qualifying. Gasly thought that he was "lucky to get out of" the first part of qualifying.

The first part of qualifying was suspended a second time when the Haas of Romain Grosjean went off the circuit. This compromised his teammate Kevin Magnussen's qualifying result, as he could not set a fast enough time after the session resumed to make it through to the second part. Magnussen qualified 12th, having had to slow down after the Alpha Tauri of Daniil Kvyat spun on the track ahead of him. Kvyat also failed to progress past the end of the first subsession, qualifying 13th. The Williams drivers could not maintain the necessary tyre temperature, with the resultant lack of grip leaving George Russell a long way off the pace, while Nicholas Latifi lost control of his car, which then got beached in a gravel trap.

### **Post Qualifying**

Stroll was investigated for failing to slow for yellow flags (which were warning that his teammate had spun on track ahead of him) in the third part of qualifying. However, he was cleared of any wrongdoing as he was deemed to have slowed sufficiently for the incident, with the drying track surface leading to Stroll's improved lap time. Norris and Russell were penalised and had to start the race from five places further back as a result. This was because they failed to slow down enough under yellow flag conditions during the first part of qualifying. Sainz was also given a similar three-place grid penalty for impeding Pérez in the first part of qualifying.

A review was launched after the second segment of qualifying was started whilst race marshals were still using a tractor crane to recover the car of Latifi, who had spun off in the previous subsession. This caused concern with some drivers citing the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, during which Jules Bianchi had a fatal collision with a recovery vehicle.

## Race

The race was held on the Sunday with a distance of 58 laps and a scheduled start time of 13:10 local time (UTC+03:00). The air temperature shortly before the start was 12.2 °C (54.0 °F) and the track temperature was 15 °C (59 °F). Rainfall half an hour beforehand meant the track was very wet at the start of the race. Giovinazzi span on a reconnaissance lap, breaking the front wing of his Alfa Romeo. Russell had a similar incident in his Williams, and started the race from the pit lane. His teammate Latifi also started from the pits, with Williams being the only team to start their drivers on intermediate wet tyres rather than full wet tyres.

### **Race Report**

Stroll held onto the lead after starting from pole position, while his teammate Pérez remained 2nd. Much of the grid chose to launch in second gear, but the drivers of the two Honda powered cars (Gasly and Kvyat) who chose to start in first gear. Ocon and Ricciardo made contact at the first turn, which caused Ocon to spin. Ricciardo apologised to his teammate for the encounter, although Ocon did not think the contact was Ricciardo's fault. Another incident involving F1 driver Bottas and Ocon later on the first lap left Ocon with a punctured tyre. Vettel gained a large number of places on the first lap, moving into third place after starting 8th. Sainz moved up from 9th into sixth on the first lap while his McLaren teammate Norris was slow off the line. Starting from an even numbered grid position was seen as a disadvantage due to the lower grip levels on that side of the track.

Leclerc, who was in 11th place at the time, made a pit stop to switch from full wet tyres to intermediates on lap six, with the frontrunning drivers doing the same over the following laps. The Ferrari driver's speed on the new tyres convinced other teams to change the tyres on their cars. Vettel made their pit stops on lap eight, while Stroll pitted on lap nine and Pérez on lap ten. A slow pit stop for Pérez allowed Stroll to extend his advantage to ten seconds.

There was only one virtual safety car period during the race, with no physical safety car periods. This occurred after Giovinazzi retired with gearbox issues on the twelfth lap. Other drivers were required to slow down while his Alfa Romeo was recovered. The Racing Point cars were the fastest on the track in the earlier stages of the race.

Teams had been waiting for the amount of water on the circuit to drop to a lower level where slick dry weather tyres would offer more grip than the treaded intermediates they were using, but at the end of the 30th lap Ferrari decided to bring Leclerc into the pits to change onto a second set of intermediate tyres. Leclerc's pace on the new tyres following his second pit stop encouraged others to also stop. Sainz moved up into fourth place on the 32nd lap after Ricciardo span ahead of him.

Stroll led for all but one of the first 35 laps, briefly relinquishing it during the first pit stop cycle before regaining it as other drivers came in for their first pit stops. He lost the lead on lap 36 when the team brought him into the pits for a new set of intermediate tyres. After this he fell to sixth place by the end of the race. According to the Racing Point team, this was due to damage to his car's front wing that caused a loss of aerodynamic downforce, which in turn damaged the tyres. Stroll had told his engineer before the pit stop that he did not want to change tyres.

Perez lead after Stroll's pitstop. As Stroll struggled on the new set of tyres the team decided against replacing the tyres on Pérez's car. Leclerc followed Vettel past Stroll after the Racing Point driver made an error on the 39th lap, before using the drag reduction system to overtake his Ferrari teammate on the next lap.

The final lap of the race saw Leclerc attempt a pass on Pérez for first place, only to make an error and fall to fourth after being passed by Vettel. Leclerc said that his inability to see where Pérez was due to the buildup of dirt on his Ferrari's wing mirrors contributed to his error. This proved to be Vettel's only podium finish of 2020.

Pérez said his tyres were close to failing at the end. The Mexican driver had used the same set of tyres for 48 laps. Norris also scored the bonus point for fastest lap, which he set on the final lap of the race. Ocon finished 8th after dropping to the back on the first lap.

Giovanazzi, Latifi, and Grosjean were the only drivers to retire from the Grand Prix, while Magnussen was classified as finishing despite not completing the race. Latifi and Grosjean both retired in the pits with damage following a collision. Grosjean's teammate Magnussen, who had been running as high as eleventh until he lost two laps to a botched pit stop, withdrew late in the race while experiencing problems with poor visibility.

## Championship Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

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Constructors' Championship standings

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## References

1. ↑  Lando Norris received a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect yellow flags during qualifying.
2. ↑  Carlos Sainz Jr. received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Sergio Pérez during qualifying
3. ↑  Pierre Gasly was required to start from the back of the grid for breaching parc fermé regulations
4. ↑  George Russell was required to start from the back of the grid for exceeding his quota of power unit elements. He also received a five-place grid penalty for failing to respect yellow flags during qualifying. Russell started the race from the pit lane after he had to return to the pits to fix his damaged car. His place on the grid, 16th, was left vacant.
5. ↑  Nicholas Latifi started the race from the pit lane as he did not leave it before it was closed. His place on the grid, 14th, was left vacant.
6. ↑  As qualifying was held on a wet track, the 107% rule was not enforced.
7. ↑  Includes one point for fastest lap.
8. ↑  Kevin Magnussen did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.
9. ↑  Racing Point was deducted 15 points after a protest from Renault was upheld regarding the legality of their car.