Vettel Leads The Pack In Turkey

The 2011 Grand Prix in Turkey saw Sebastian Vettel extend his lead in the drivers' championship to 34 points over closest rival Lewis Hamilton - and with just four races gone it adds to the feeling among Grand Prix fans that 2011 will prove to be a procession of wins.

The turning point could be in three weeks time, when the Monaco Grand Prix will be much more of driver against driver than what car is fastest and best to handle.

The street circuit of Monte Carlo often produces surprise roulette type results, and if Vettel wins both the Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix, the championship for many is effectively before the end of May, bar any major incidents preventing Vettel from competing in some of the races left in the F1 Calendar.

In Turkey, Vettel drove an impeccable race winning by an impressive eight seconds, and never looked like anything but the winner, and with his Red Bull mechanics proving to be equally good when he came in for tyre changes it's difficult to see which driver and which team can beat him.

The superiority of Red Bull was underlined in Turkey as they secured a 1-2 podium finish, with Australian Mark Webber coming second.

The closest any team came to breaking Red Bull's dominance in Turkey was Ferrari, with Spain's Fernando Alonso completing the podium in third place. British drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button came a disappointing fourth and sixth in their McLaren's, and were a long way off the pace, with Hamilton slowed by poor pit lane stops.

Before the race Lewis Hamilton played down his chances of winning saying 'I don't like to expect too much because if it doesn't work out it's not a big come down. Even though we won the last race, we are still slightly behind the Red Bulls in terms of pure pace.'

Hamilton is the only driver this year who has come close to breaking Vette's dominance, winning the Chinese Grand Prix in emphatic style three weeks ago, and if he had managed to win again in Turkey the season would still be wide open with everything to play for in the run up to the Monao Grand Prix on May 29.

But perhaps it might be Alonso in his Ferrari rather than Hamilton or Button who might stop Red Bull running away with the 2011 championship? Speaking after the race Alonso commented:

'I'm very, very happy. This is only the first step. First we need to be on the podium, which we did today, and then we need to move forward. It was a surprise for us to see McLaren so far behind in the qualifying sessions and to be in front of McLaren today and so the car is doing something better than the first few races.'

The next race is the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona - last year Mark Webber won in a Red Bull and he will be hoping to repeat his performance, while omniously Lewis Hamilton failed to finish. And just a week later it's the Monaco Grand Prix, when it's make or break for many of the teams and drivers.