Turkey 2009: Pitstop & Tyre Strategies

Most drivers started the Turkish Grand Prix on the preferred harder compound tyre and divided the race in to three stints with two stops. However, some decided to be a little daring and try three stops (and even one stop), but it seemed that the two-stop option turned out to be the faster. The talking point is Sebastian Vettel’s race, who started on a three-stopper, but after losing his advantage, Red Bull should have changed him to a two-stop. They didn’t and the German spent most of the afternoon chasing other drivers.

Two drivers suffered unusual pitstops in Istanbul; Jarno Trulli overshot his garage of mechanics, forcing them all to shift up in order to change the tyres and engage the fuel nozzle. Kazuki Nakajima was also delayed during one of his pitstops, the front-right wheel cover not going on properly.

Turkey 2009 Pitstop Strategies	Stint 1 (Start Tyre)	Stint 2 (Lap)	Stint 3 (Lap)	Stint 4 (Lap)
McLaren
Lewis Hamilton	Hard	Soft (33)
Heikki Kovalainen	Soft	Hard (19)	Soft (43)
Ferrari
Kimi Raikkonen	Hard	Hard (18)	Soft (44)
Felipe Massa	Hard	Hard (17)	Soft (42)
BMW
Nick Heidfeld	Hard	Hard (28)	Soft (46)
Robert Kubica	Hard	Hard (21)	Soft (44)
Renault
Fernando Alonso	Soft	Hard (15)	Hard (47)
Nelson Piquet Jr.	Hard	Hard (31)	Soft (48)
Toyota
Jarno Trulli	Hard	Hard (17)	Soft (43)
Timo Glock	Hard	Hard (31)	Soft(47)
Scuderia Toro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi	Hard	Hard (25)	Soft (43)
Sebastien Bourdais	Hard	Soft (33)
Red Bull Racing
Sebastian Vettel	Hard	Hard (16)	Hard (29)	Soft (48)
Mark Webber	Hard	Hard (18)	Soft (43)
Williams
Nico Rosberg	Hard	Hard (18)	Soft (40)
Kazuki Nakajima	Hard	Hard (26)	Soft (43)
Force India
Giancarlo Fisichella	Hard	DNF (4)
Adrian Sutil	Hard	Hard (21)	Soft (37)
Brawn
Jenson Button	Hard	Hard (17)	Soft (43)
Rubens Barrichello	Hard	Hard (14)	Soft (39)	DNF (48)