Six races over and we have had everything that constitutes the core of excitement. We have next the Turkish Grand Prix and expectations are high again. Who will dominate the Turkish circuit? That seems to be the question on everyone’s mind. Will it be the raging Red Bulls again or are we going to see some real action from Ferrari or McLaren? Yes, we have deliberately skipped Schumi, and we all know why.

The 5.338-kilometre Istanbul Park circuit, by all means, is a tough deal. It is one of the four circuits that runs anti-clockwise, the other three being Singapore, Brazil’s Interlagos and Abu Dhabi. And no one can miss the unnerving Turn Eight, the left-hander has about three apexes and is taken around 250 km/h at probably the highest G-forces a driver experiences during the season.

Cars with high aerodynamic efficiency will definitely have am edge over the others and this means that Red Bulls will be in their element. Webber, with his consecutive victories in Barcelona and Monaco, is currently in the best of his form. Vettel is trailing close to his team mate and will hope for better results after the introduction of a new chassis.

Ferrari and McLaren are certainly hoping for the best. Ferrari’s Alonso strongly believes that, if not for the unfortunate crash-up at the Massenet corner on Saturday, he could have challenged the victory at the Monaco GP. Team mate Massa, had never lost a race round the ‘Otodrom’ until Button won last year for Brawn.

“Istanbul Park is a track that I really enjoy,” says 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.

“It’s probably the best-designed circuit that we visit all year. 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.”

Hamilton says: “I think we came away from Monaco with a respectable result, but the MP4-25 wasn’t particularly well suited to a tight and bumpy track like that. At a place like Istanbul Park, our car will be back in its element. It loves smooth, fast circuits, where the aero can really work over the car through the long, fast corners. It should feel fantastic to drive.

Mercedes GP will try to do something to overcome the embarrassment that the Monaco GP was for them. Team principal Ross Brawn said: “We will return to our previous suspension system and longer wheelbase car, we have the latest iteration of our ‘F-Duct‘ rear wing plus further aerodynamic developments.”

Force India is looking optimistic too, the reason for that being the new F-Duct. Test driver Paul di Resta will not be running on Friday morning to allow Liuzzi and Sutil to get used to the revised cars.

Vitantonio Liuzzi, “We deserved to have a double points finish earlier than Monaco, but for some reasons it didn’t happen, so we need to continue to put both cars the top 10 if we want to catch Renault.”