2005 Turkish Grand Prix

The 2005 Turkish Grand Prix was a Formula One race held on August 21 at the Istanbul Racing Circuit in Istanbul, Turkey. This was the first Formula 1 race to take place in Turkey.

Summary

Friday Drivers

Classification

Qualifying

• Takuma Sato was found guilty of blocking Mark Webber (Sato was unaware of Webber approaching as he had been reported to have no radio contact with the BAR Honda team) and was relegated to the back of the grid, behind Michael Schumacher who had a spin at Turn 9 and had his V10 engine changed following qualification.
• Robert Doornbos' brakes caught fire due to an incorrect brake pipe fitting.
• Narain Karthikeyan experienced two engine failures.

Race

• Williams-BMW cars retired from the race due to right-rear tyre failures - twice for each car.
• Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber collided on Lap 14. Schumacher's rear suspension was damaged, but he later rejoined the race after repairs to improve his qualifying slot by three positions at the next race. Webber's Williams lost the nose cone.
• Juan Pablo Montoya was comfortably heading for second place on the penultimate lap when he overbraked after overtaking the lapped Jordan of Tiago Monteiro, whom he had contact with, thus damaging the diffuser. On the next lap Montoya lost rear grip and ran straight ahead on Turn 8, losing second place to Fernando Alonso.
• Felipe Massa lost his front wing and bargeboard in a first corner collision with Nick Heidfeld. After the replacements he managed to continue racing till lap 29 where his engine failed.
• Juan Pablo Montoya's fastest lap was over 2 seconds faster than his team mate's qualifying time, usually fastest race laps are far slower than qualifying lap times.

Notes

• Pole position: Kimi Räikkönen
• Fastest lap: Juan Pablo Montoya 1:24.770
• Lap leaders: Kimi Räikkönen 1-58 (58).
• Weather and track condition: Although it rained in the morning (during the GP2 race) the track was dry with air temperature at 30 degrees while track temperature at 45.
• Spectator Count:
• Practice (Friday): 40,000
• Qualifying (Saturday): 53,000
• Race (Sunday): 100,000