TURKISH GP | FP1 & FP2 | AS IT HAPPENED

 F1 return to Istanbul was great for Red Bull and Ferrari fans. F1 returned to Istanbul since 2011 season. The practice race was inaugurated on Friday the 13th of November 2020. 

Red Bull Racing Team

First Practice Race - FP1:-

As F1 returned to Istanbul, drivers were unable to hold down the grip onto the track. The 5.338 km track was cold as well as slippery. 

The leader of FP1 was Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing Team, followed by his teammate Alex Albon. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was at P3 with Pierre Gasly at P4 of Alpha Tauri.

Lewis Hamilton was at P15 and his teammate Valtteri Bottas at P9. Start for the Bottas was go enough but was 20 seconds slower than the anticipated lap times. 

 

As usual the session was red-flagged as Charles Leclerc smashed the bollard, after the race was started again the drivers were still finding the way to hold onto the track as it was super slippery.

Max Verstappen then moved to top leaving Bottas behind, Charles and his teammate Sebastian were looking more comfortable than any other drivers and were able to secure P3 and P4 positions respectively.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz was finding difficulties with his F1 as there was an electrical issue going on internally.

As the drivers were finding difficulties to hold grip several drivers already had a spin on the track including the World's leading F1 driver Lewis Hamilton and his team mate Bottas.

2020 F1 TURKISH GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (1)
POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 35.077
2	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 35.318
3	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 35.507
4	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 35.543
5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 35.620
6	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 36.739
7	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m 37.216
8	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 37.503
9	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 37.629
10	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault F1 Team	1m 38.428
11	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m 38.508
12	Sergio Perez	MEX	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 38.612
13	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 39.484
14	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1m 40.025
15	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 40.225
16	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 41.035
17	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1m 41.854
18	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault F1 Team	1m 45.156
19	Carlos Sainz	SPA	McLaren F1 Team	1m 46.462
20	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1m 49.256

FP1 STANDINGS

Second Practice Race - FP2

FP2 was also in favor of Max Verstappen as he recorded the fastest lap of 1m28.330secs. Ferrari's driver Charles converted his P3 into a P2 with second fastest lap of 1m28.401 secs. Sebastian Vettel came down to P9 in FP2. 

While struggling in FP1 Mercedes's drivers Bottas and Lewis who came P9 and P15 respectively, were able to hold a grip on the track and converted than in P3 and P4 respectively.

Alex Albon was 1.033 sec late to Max Verstappen.

2020 F1 TURKISH GRAND PRIX - FREE PRACTICE RESULTS (2)
POS	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	TIME
1	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 28.330
2	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 28.731
3	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 28.905
4	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 29.180
5	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 29.363
6	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 29.689
7	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 29.944
8	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 30.022
9	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 30.297
10	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m 30.907
11	Sergio Perez	MEX	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 31.104
12	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault F1 Team	1m 31.380
13	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 31.493
14	Carlos Sainz	SPA	McLaren F1 Team	1m 31.498
15	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault F1 Team	1m 31.872
16	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 31.932
17	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1m 32.302
18	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1m 32.570
19	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1m 32.807
20	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m 33.488

Also join us on the LIVE COVERAGE of the TURKISH GP 2020 at 5:30 pm (IST) on 15th of November. The link will be updated here. 

STAY TUNED. STAY SAFE.

- A report by AMAAN ATTAR