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THE hand that last year pointed the finger of blame at Mark Webber was extended in grateful thanks on Sunday as Red Bull celebrated a healing one-two Turkish Grand Prix finish.
Austrian Helmut Marko, close confidant of the Formula One team's billionaire owner Dietrich Mateschitz, stood smiling in the same paddock where he had previously scowled at the Australian.
As Webber hurriedly approached the team motor home, with jubilant mechanics waiting to celebrate team mate Sebastian Vettel's win and his own second place, Marko offered a handshake. It was accepted. The demons had been publicly exorcised.
"We have forgotten Turkey 2010. It was a perfect race and the whole team performed wonderfully, no strategic mistakes," said Marko, who last May blamed Webber for a collision with Vettel that denied the team just such a one-two finish. "We have forgotten last year. This year everything was fine and perfect."
The atmosphere last year was very different, with Webber arriving in Turkey on the back of consecutive wins in Spain and Monaco and leading the championship after six races.
He had started the race on pole but felt Red Bull had told him to turn down his engine revs as he was leading in the closing laps while failing to issue a similar order to Vettel. The German closed up, tried to pass and Webber stuck firmly to his line.
On Sunday, Vettel lined up on pole with two wins from three races and leading the championship. While he roared away and led to win without being remotely troubled, Webber dropped back from second place and found himself locked in battle just to get back to where he had started. "It would have been difficult to beat Seb today," he conceded.
Vettel, who did not lead the championship last year until he won the final race in Abu Dhabi to become the youngest ever champion at 23, will leave Istanbul with 93 points from a possible 100.
He has long had to put up with comparisons with compatriot Michael Schumacher and they are looking less and less fanciful by the race. Vettel has been on pole position for the past five races and has won six of his last eight. If it goes on like this, the championship will be over long before the final round in Brazil in November.
The German, as ever, was keeping his feet firmly on the ground. "I think that the day you start to think you are unbeatable is the day you get beaten," he said.
One likely threat could be Fernando Alonso, who said he was enjoying racing again after securing Ferrari's first podium finish of the Formula One season.
Ferrari, Formula One's most successful and glamorous team, had started the season with high hopes after a strong showing in testing. The first race in Australia was a let-down and the second in Malaysia rang alarm bells while China was another disappointment.
