On Saturday everything looks like the Turkish Grand Prix will be a huge success for Mick Schumacher. But then, after just one lap in the race, a crash puts an end to hopes for the first championship points. Fernando Alonso is punished for this – and finds it only fair.
Again no points, only 19th place at the Turkish Grand Prix. Mick Schumacher still hasn’t collected a single point for the World Cup. The Formula 1 rookie was closer than ever to the 16th round of the season in Istanbul. Until, after just one and a half laps in the race, he got away from that dream again Had to say goodbye because he spun in his Haas car and fell far behind in the field.
It was neither the rainy conditions nor his own driving mistake to blame – and neither was his teammate Nikita Mazepin, who had already harassed him one or the other time on the racing circuits of the premier motorsport class. Former world champion Fernando Alonso had crashed Schumacher and thus prevented a better race. The Spaniard was given a five-second time penalty for this and was very understanding: “Maybe that wasn’t the best place to overtake. I saw a gap and thought I could use it. But then he spun and I got the punishment I deserve. ”
Alonso went even further, gave the very fair athlete and apologized to the 22-year-old German: “In the first few laps you saw very little in the crowd. I understand that he didn’t see me. We touched and unfortunately did he then turned. I’m sorry. ” After the race, the Alpine driver also went to Schumacher and apologized personally.
But Alonso also said: “That only happened because I was in P14. I shouldn’t be in that position,” said the Spaniard, who actually started from position five but was then turned in the first corner by Pierre Gasly himself . This was the only way for the Spaniard to drive close to Schumacher, who with starting position 14 had started the race as well as never before in his young career.
At the start for the first time in Q2
After the involuntary turn, the race for Schumacher was almost over. “Then it’s the same as in the dry: Here you just can not follow. The tire is immediately warmer and it slips. And that’s why we just found it extremely difficult,” he said at Sky. And yet the rookie didn’t want to be sad, he wanted to remember Saturday rather than Sunday’s race. After qualifying, with a simple and unequivocal “Yes!” shouted his joy after Q1 on the radio. It was only for the second time in his debut season that he made it into Q2.
He was even able to drive in Q2 for the first time, in Le Castellet he had to watch because of an accident. “It was different, funny, unfamiliar,” explained the 22-year-old. “But I like to make it a habit.” He was very satisfied with starting position 14, he said to his mechanics in the pits and said at Sky: “We worked it out as a team, we made the right decision. We came out with the right tires at the right moment.”
The Haas team was unable to show this again in the race, and Alonso’s apology does not change anything, but Schumacher focuses on “a lot of positive things”: “We had extremely good free practice sessions and qualifying was mega”, he said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough today to be a little faster and farther up front, but still enough to gain experience.”
“Boring Race”
His competitor Alonso struggled a lot more with the race. Not just because of the collision with Schumacher. At the end of the 16th he was lapped himself and was annoyed about “a boring race”. His explanation: “As I said yesterday: If we start at the front, we are always unlucky. Then you get hit from behind and then nothing happens for 58 laps. When we are behind, there is no yellow flag, no safety car , nothing.” The Spaniard went even further: “We knew the race was going to be a bit of a lottery, but every time we play the lottery, our balls don’t come.”
Instead, this time the balls came from Valtteri Bottas in Istanbul, the Mercedes driver achieved his first win of the season ahead of World Championship leader Max Verstappen in the Red Bull. The Dutchman benefited from the fact that Lewis Hamilton also had to fight – albeit with his own crew – and only came fifth. With the engine penalty, he had only started the race from eleventh place, his chase to catch up ended unhappily because his team pitted him late for a tire change and thus prevented him from going through with just one set. “We shouldn’t have come in!” The Briton scolded afterwards. In contrast, Schumacher was in a really good mood. As 19th he had won the team-internal duel with Mazepin once again.