Monday 24 May 2010

Preview Istanbul Park, Turkey

Istanbul Park is a motor sports race track in Akfırat County east of Istanbul ,Turkey. It was inaugurated on 21 August 2005. It has been called "the best race track in the world" by Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone. The venue of the Turkish Grand Prix is located in Pendik on the Asian side of Istanbul, close to the junction of Kurtköy on the north side of the TEM motorway, linking Istanbul to Ankara.

Turn 8 has rapidly become the track's most famous corner - Jenson Button -´´Turn Eight is one of the best corners in Formula One: it feels fantastic when you throw the car into the first apex, and then just feed it through with very precise throttle and steering inputs. When you get it right, it feels absolutely fantastic - you really can pull a lot of speed through that corner. If you can follow a car out of Turn 10, then you’ve got a really good chance of getting a tow and having a look up the inside into Turn 12, or even Turn 13 - those two corners are where all the passing usually happens..´´

With a total of 16 corners, the sharpest with a radius of merely 15 m, the formula 1circuit runs over four different ground levels with a start/finish straight over 650 m in length. The total race distance of the Turkish Grand Prix is 309.356 km over 58 laps.
The spectacular 5.378 kilometre track was designed by famed German architect Hermann Tilke and an unusual feature of the venue is that the lap runs anti-clockwise, making the Turkish Grand Prix one of only three races on the calendar to do so (Brazil and Abu Dhabi being the other two).
The main grandstand has a seating capacity of 25,000 spectators. In addition, natural ground stands and temporary stands can provide a total capacity of over 155,000. The paddock buildings are two-level structures; the ground floor reserved for racing teams, the upper floor serving as hospitality areas, with an additional viewing capacity of 5,000 seats. At each end of the paddock, there are two 7-story VIP towers. The circuit itself has already been compared to Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Another notable corner is Turn 1, a sharp downhill left-hander immediately after the front straight. This corner has been nicknamed by some as the "Turkish Corkscrew" in reference to the famous "Corkscrew" at Laguna Seca. Both the 2006 F1 and MotoGP races at the circuit featured multiple incidents at this corner.
Top speed at the speed trap in 2005 was 329.5 km/h (204.8 mph) by modern F1 cars. In 2006 with the smaller 2.4 liter V8 engines (instead of the 3.0 liter V10s of previous years) the fastest cars reached 320 km/h, this is not down to power, however, the tyres were a major let down for all participating teams in the 2006 venue. Felipe Massa has an affinity with this circuit, with the Brazilian winning 3 of the 5 Grands Prix held at Istanbul Park.

The fastest race lap was achieved by Juan Pablo Montoya in 1'24.770, a time which is yet to be surpassed.
Winners at Turkish Grand Prix:
2005 Kimmi Raikkonen - Mclaren-Mercedes
2006 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
2007 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
2008 Felipe Massa - Ferrari
2009 Jenson Button - Brawn GP


Other events - the circuit has also hosted FIA World Touring Car Championship, Formula-G, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) and the Le Mans Series 1,000 km race:
Thursday 27th May Formula One Press Conference - Press Room 14:00
Friday 28th May Porsche GT3 Cup Practice Session 07:45 - 08:15
Formula One Practice 1 09:00 - 10:30
GP2 Practice Session 10:55 - 11:25
Porsche GT3 Cup Qualifying Session 11:45 - 12:15
Formula One Practice 2 13:00 - 14:30
GP2 Qualifying Session 15:00 - 15:30
GP3 Practice Session 16:00 - 16:30
Saturday 29th May Formula One Team Pit Stop Practice 07:30 - 08:30
GP3 Qualifying Session 08:45 - 09:15
Formula One Practice 3 10:00 - 11:00
Porsche GT3 Cup First Race (12 Laps or 30 Mins) 11:25 - 12:00
Formula One Qualifying 13:00
GP2 First Race (32 Laps or 60 Mins) 14:40 - 15:45
GP3 First Race (15 Laps or 30 Mins) 16:20 - 16:55
Formula One Safety Car Demonstration Laps 17:10 - 17:20
Sunday 30th May Porsche GT3 Cup Second Race (12 Laps or 30 Mins) 08:25 - 09:00
GP3 Second Race (15 Laps or 30 Mins)09:25 - 10:00
GP2 Second Race (23 Laps or 45 Mins) 10:35 - 11:25
Formula One Drivers Track Parade 12:30
Formula One Starting Grid Presentation 12:45 - 13:15
Formula One National Anthem 13:46
Formula One Race 14:00
*GMT+2

Last year pole at Istanbul Park(Sebastian Vettel):

1 comment:

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