2020 Turkish Grand Prix
The 2020 Turkish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 15 November 2020 at Istanbul Park in Tuzla, Istanbul. It was the fourteenth round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship, and the eighth Turkish Grand Prix. The event was added to the revised 2020 calendar after other 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 the first pole position of his career and led most of the race, but finished ninth after his car was damaged. Lewis Hamilton won for the Mercedes team, having started in sixth place. Stroll's teammate Sergio Pérez finished second and Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel came third, with both Pérez and Vettel getting their first podium finishes of the season.
Going into the race only Hamilton and his teammate Valtteri Bottas remained in contention for the World Drivers' Championship, with Hamilton holding an 85-point lead. By winning the race, Hamilton claimed his seventh World Championship title, equalling the record set by Michael Schumacher. Hamilton's title also marked the seventh consecutive time that a Mercedes driver had won the World Championship.
Background
The meeting, officially called the Formula 1 DHL Turkish Grand Prix 2020, took place over the weekend of at the Istanbul Park circuit, and was the fourteenth of the seventeen rounds of the 2020 Formula One 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 2020 season was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the originally planned were cancelled or postponed, prompting the sport's governing body, the FIA, to collaborate with stakeholders on drafting a new calendar. The Turkish Grand Prix was added to the schedule in late August. It was held on the same date that the cancelled Brazilian Grand Prix was previously 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 it would take place behind closed doors.
The venue is located in Tuzla, Istanbul, at 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 in Italy and a fortnight before the following round in Bahrain. While teams had driven their cargo to previous editions, the plan for the 2020 meeting was to fly it to Turkey.
A lap of the fourteen-turn circuit measures. The lap record was set in 2005 by Juan Pablo Montoya with a time of one minute and 24.770 seconds at an average of. A second drag reduction system 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.
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 and the high cost of hosting the race were responsible for its absence from the previous eight seasons.
Ten teams each entered two drivers. 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 as he tested the feasibility of managing the team remotely. The Alfa Romeo team's participation marked the 500th Grand Prix entry by a team run by the Sauber Motorsport company. It was also Red Bull Racing's 300th Grand Prix entry as a constructor. Three drivers who had won previous editions were entered.
Social distancing measures were put in place and workers were obliged to always wear masks. The Williams team made personnel changes after several workers either tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 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 after testing positive for the coronavirus. Mario Isola, the head of Pirelli's Formula One 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 Formula One 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, which can improve adhesion.
Championship permutations
The Mercedes team had already secured both championships, as no other team's drivers could outscore Hamilton, who held an 85-point lead over his teammate Valtteri Bottas with a maximum of 104 points still available. Bottas needed to score eight points more than Hamilton in order to remain in contention to win the 2020 World Drivers' Championship. If Bottas finished in a position lower than sixth, then Hamilton would win the championship regardless of where he finished. If Hamilton finished in second place then Bottas would have needed to have won and set the fastest lap of the race in order to remain in contention. This was Hamilton's first opportunity to secure the 2020 title. Only one point separated the Renault team in third from fifth-placed Racing Point in the Constructors' Championship standings, with McLaren in fourth.Practice
The first of Friday's two ninety-minute practice sessions ended with Max Verstappen fastest ahead of Red Bull teammate Alex Albon, with Charles Leclerc third fastest for Ferrari. The session was briefly suspended after Leclerc hit a bollard during its opening minutes. Championship leader Hamilton was only fifteenth fastest while Bottas was ninth. 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 fifteen to twenty seconds slower that the lap times that were expected in qualifying.
The second Friday practice session ended with Verstappen fastest ahead of Leclerc and Bottas. Verstappen's best time in the second session was nearly seven seconds faster than in the first. Championship contenders Bottas and Hamilton both improved their positions significantly in this session. Bottas compared the low-grip track conditions to his experiences of driving on ice in his native Finland. 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 Verstappen fastest ahead of Leclerc and Albon, while championship leader Hamilton did not set a time. 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 started at 15:00 local time on the Saturday. The air temperature at the start of qualifying was and the track temperature was. The session was split into three subsessions. After each subsession the slowest five cars had their qualifying positions set and were prevented from taking part in the next subsession. Lap times were deleted if drivers left the track at the exit of the first, sixth, or fourteenth corners. The session was defined by a low-grip track surface and damp weather, 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 score the maiden pole position of his career, completing a lap in one minute and 47.765 seconds at an average speed of. It was the first pole position for a Canadian driver since Jacques Villeneuve's pole at the 1997 European Grand Prix. Stroll credited his experience of driving on ice in Canada as helping him. The team were able to set up their cars to work well in the slippery conditions, with Stroll's teammate Sergio Pérez qualifying in third place after spending most of the final subsession at the top of the time sheets. This was Racing Point's first pole position as a constructor, and it was also the first pole for any incarnation of the team since their predecessors Force India at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix. Racing Point's pole was the first for a constructor other than Mercedes, Red Bull, or Ferrari since the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix.Verstappen qualified second for Red Bull after struggling to manage his tyre temperatures. The Red Bull car had performed better on the full wet tyres in the second part of qualifying than on the intermediates in the final subsession, which was the first session of the meeting where Verstappen did not set the fastest lap time. He qualified 0.3 seconds behind Stroll, having lost 0.6 seconds to an error at the seventh turn. Albon in the other Red Bull equalled his best qualifying result with fourth position; he set his fastest time on the full wet tyres.
Constructors' champions Mercedes had a poor session, with Hamilton qualifying in sixth place and Bottas in ninth; this was the first pole position in 2020 not to go to a Mercedes driver. Both drivers felt that they were less able to utilise the grip of the tyres than some other teams. Hamilton came close to not making it out of the first subsession, with a fastest time in that segment over ten seconds slower than the time set by Verstappen. The Mercedes car took as many as seven laps to get its tyres up to temperature in the prevailing conditions, which the short qualifying subsessions rendered unfeasible.
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 fifth after spending the whole session on the full wets, while Ocon qualified seventh 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 eighth and Antonio Giovinazzi tenth. It was the first time both Alfa Romeo drivers qualified in the top ten that year.
McLaren had their worst qualifying of the year so far, with neither of their drivers qualifying in the top ten. Norris qualified eleventh and Sainz thirteenth as they were unable to get their car's tyres up to the needed temperature. Despite being second fastest in final practice, Leclerc could only qualify fourteenth, being knocked out in the second subsession with a lap time six seconds slower than pacesetter Verstappen. Vettel outqualified him in the other Ferrari, claiming twelfth position. Vettel had not outqualified Leclerc at any of the previous ten Grands Prix. AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly qualified fifteenth with a lap time over eight seconds slower than Verstappen's in the second part, and said that "we got lucky to get out of Q1".
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 sixteenth, having had to slow down after the AlphaTauri of Daniil Kvyat spun on the track ahead of him. Kvyat also failed to progress past the end of the first subsession, qualifying seventeenth. 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, qualifying eighteenth. Nicholas Latifi lost control of his car, which then got beached in a gravel trap.