Nowhere was this more the case than at Red Bull Racing - where else can we start? - where fault lines on the inside turned into gaping cracks on the outside, which in the past week the team has been desperate to try to paper over. Even in the lead-up to Turkey, one sensed that this race could be a turning point for the team. After two races which Mark Webber had surprisingly, unexpectedly dominated, Sebastian Vettel had been given a new chassis for Istanbul after minor faults had been found in his old car.

To cynical observers, this seemed more than sheer coincidence. It reeked of an attempt by the team to rebuild the young star’s confidence - “It’s not you, it’s the car.” If Webber could clean up for a third race straight, the momentum may have inexorably, decisively swung his way. If Vettel could reassert himself, and reclaim that tenth or two’s gap that he used to have, there may have been no looking back. Even after his qualifying problems, from 3rd on the grid the race could have been his, just as it was in Malaysia.

We all know what happened for two-thirds of the race, culminating on lap 40. In the week since, there’s been much investigation as to why Vettel caught Webber up so quickly, prompted by Mark’s suggestion in the post-race press conference that people should “dig more”. A story has emerged about Red Bull’s fuel saving modes, about how Webber was running lean that lap when Vettel wasn’t, and even about how Webber had asked the team to get Vettel to back off and either the team wouldn’t or Sebastian didn’t.

To my mind, all that is somewhat irrelevant, and there is little controversial in any of it. It makes sense if Webber, leading from the front, had used more fuel and Vettel had been able to conserve. It makes sense that Vettel had one opportunity to close up and get past. It makes sense that Webber might have asked the team to implement a holding pattern, less than 20 laps from the finish. With the McLarens so close behind, it makes sense that the Red Bull brains trust might have refused.

None of it pointed to any favouritism within the team. All it explained, simply, was why the RB6s were in close proximity to each other. Then again, what if engine modes had nothing to do with it, and Mark had simply made a small mistake that lap, allowing Seb to close up? The truth is, the Australian had been slightly scruffy that lap. The point is this: none of these diversionary investigations explain Vettel’s attempted passing manoeuvre, the ultimate collision, or the blatant side-taking that immediately followed.

Much more relevant is the question mark that hangs over Vettel’s ability to pass people on track rather than via strategy. Aside from first corner moves like the one he sprang on Webber at Sepang, or when he’s had to burn from the stern as in Brazil last year, one can think of very few if any overtakes he’s completed against comparable opposition in normal racing conditions. In contrast, amongst this year’s main contenders there are no such doubts over the likes of Hamilton, Jenson Button or Fernando Alonso.

Here he did nothing to silence the critics. It was his choice to go down the inside of his team-mate’s car, no one else made him do that. Yet the inside gap was much narrower and dirtier, put him at risk of being shoved off the track by Webber - one of the hardest men in the business to pass - and made it nearly impossible to brake for turn 12. He could have chosen to attempt a move to the right of Webber instead. As Button and Hamilton subsequently showed, there can be some real logic in trying that instead.

It is possible to hang around the outside of an opponent at turn 12, which gives you the inside line for turn 13. Alternatively, even if you don’t make it past during the last corner sequence, it is an advantage to have your rival hugging the inside line into turn 12. It leaves him taking a shallow line into both 13 and 14 as well, and susceptible to a criss-cross move into turn 1 of the next lap. A thinking man’s driver would realise, unless you can definitely get the job done on the inside at 12, the outside line might be better.

Especially when there’s acres of space on the outside, as Webber had left little more than a car’s width on his left. From Mark’s on-board, he actually started off by edging even further towards the left. But when Vettel started to pull alongside, whether he knew it or not, Mark started shifting to the right. By definition, from this point on any contact had to be caused by Sebastian. And so it was the case; the German either moved right or leaned right, and caused the collision.

It has become a bit of a modus operandi amongst Grand Prix drivers to lean against an opponent trying to get past. At the risk of sounding like a fuddy-duddy, that is what happens when the ever-increasing safety levels remove the element of danger. In days past, the unwritten code of honour amongst drivers would never permit such a tactic. There was simply too much threat of wheels touching, cars being launched into the air or into walls, and endangering life and limb.

They all do it these days, and it makes a bit of a mockery of the ‘one move’ concept. By keeping on leaning against the other driver, when does your ‘one move’ end? Vettel especially has turned it into something of an art form. He pushed Robert Kubica onto the grass on the opening lap at Monza last year on the run to the first Lesmo, and he edged Hamilton towards other teams’ pit equipment during their pit lane drag race in China this year. This time the unstoppable force met the immoveable object.

From an observer’s perspective, most pinned the blame on Vettel. So too did most of those who have a racer’s perspective, including both Martin Brundle and David Coulthard on the BBC coverage - particularly pertinent since Coulthard is so closely involved with Red Bull. One group that remained strangely silent were the stewards. Did they not look into the incident simply because it was intra-team? The stewards weren’t afraid to get involved between Hamilton and Alonso in Hungary in 2007 ...

All in all, it was Sebastian who caused the incident, and one between team-mates at that, the ultimate no-no. It’s then one thing to shake your fist or similar at your rival if you think he was in the wrong; it’s another thing to give the world a character reference for your opponent and team-mate, without having reviewed the incident, as Vettel did when he walked away from his car. By comparison, Webber’s diplomatic media performance post-race was first class, whereas Vettel had simply been classless.

What was really unbelievable, though, was the team hierarchy’s immediate response. Christian Horner’s first opinion, from which he has only since slightly recanted, was that not enough room was given - the implication being that Webber was in the wrong. Excuse me? Not only had Webber given a legitimate amount of room on the left, he left miles of space on the right! There has not been a single comment about Sebastian’s daft decision to take the more difficult option.

Did it imply that not only should Mark have given Sebastian room, he should have offered him the easy path as well? Then Dr Helmut Marko told the press that Webber should have been told to let Vettel past - team orders being banned and Mark not being contracted to be subservient a la one of Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari team-mates - and that Sebastian was entitled to move over on Mark because he had edged ahead. Both opinions are so ludicrous that they do not deserve to be dignified with a comment.

It is in moments of crisis that a person or a team’s true colours come out. Whatever damage limitation Red Bull may have attempted in the past week in the face of near-universal bad press and the tide of public opinion, whatever PR spin the team may employ to deem the whole saga a racing incident from which the team will move on united and cooperative, a dark heart within the operation got exposed, and Mark must wonder if there are more forces ranged against him than he realises.

Quite simply, Vettel is the favoured son within Red Bull Racing, and the team would prefer for him to win. It justifies the money which has been poured into the young driver program, and Sebastian’s cheeky demeanour is in keeping with the image that Dietrich Mateschitz’s marketing men want to promote worldwide in order to shift more cans of their sickly beverage. And although Webber may have been with the team since 2007, Vettel’s been part of the family for just as long, if not longer.

Ultimately, Vettel is also faster than Webber. No amount of Australian jingoism will stop me from saying that. The German is a long-term investment whereas Webber’s the one in the wrong half of his career and on a year-by-year deal which by definition is clearly performance-based. There were lingering rumours of Webber joining another team prior to his re-signing for 2011, whereas there is currently also talk of Vettel committing to the team until 2015. But there are three things that Red Bull have got wrong.

The first is that the team have failed to appraise Vettel’s qualities properly, and helped him to develop as a racing driver. He may be the new Schumacher but he’s no messiah yet, and it was mainly his driving errors that cost him the 2009 title. He has responded poorly to Webber’s pace this year with scowls and frowns. He is not a proven overtaker. He has only won six races to Webber’s four. Beneath the chirpy exterior there lies an ego that needs to be nurtured properly, not mollycoddled as Red Bull are doing.

The second is that, if you’re going to play favourites, be up front about it. I do not condone the way Benetton or Ferrari operated during their Schumacher years, but at least it was overt that the second driver at Benetton was not given much attention, and that the second driver at Ferrari had subservience written into their contracts. We may have all hated Austria 2002 but at least it was open. If Red Bull wanted Vettel to win that badly, why had Webber been able to dominate the last two events?

The third is that it is possible to have favourites without favouritism, and to still tell things as they are. McLaren’s man-management over the years has not been without its flaws, but at least in 2007, whilst they adored Hamilton, they were prepared to lay the blame in the press for the Hungary qualifying debacle at Lewis’ door. That is now easily overlooked by the fact that Alonso saw the incident as final proof that Lewis could get away with anything as McLaren’s favoured son, and behaved obnoxiously thereafter.

Even so, and even though Fernando became persona non grata, that did not change the fact that he was allowed to win and did in fact win at Monza from pole, he was given a fair shot at the 2007 championship, and he ended up on the same number of points as Hamilton, both falling one point short of Kimi Raikkonen. You couldn’t get more equal than that. Even if they have a driver who is more a part of the team’s fabric, McLaren have generally maintained genuine equality and the ability to call a spade a spade.

What Red Bull has done is mothball their favoured man. They will in all likelihood keep giving Webber an equal car. But it’s about more than that. What Turkey showed was that whilst in terms of equipment they could emulate McLaren’s equality, they haven’t been able to emulate McLaren’s ability to give the impression of absolute fairness, but nor are they up-front enough about their Vettel-love. Red Bull has become F1’s version of Animal Farm, where all drivers are equal, but some are more equal than others.

The heart of darkness that lurks within the team got exposed, and as a result it is a joint 'Reject of the Race' award to be shared by Vettel, Horner and Marko. In Vettel’s case, it is for his error that caused the incident in itself and his spoilt behaviour afterwards. In Horner’s case, it is for his powerless, compliant lack of real leadership and his preference for PR spin over real solutions. And in Marko’s case, whilst at least he was honest, it is for the way he so mindlessly revealed the Austrian faction’s biases within the team.

As journalist Joe Saward has pointed out on his blog, the dilemma for Webber now is whether or not he can continue to trust the team, despite leading the championship. When niggling things go wrong, when strategy or pit stops don’t go according to plan, does he now start smelling conspiracies and let it get to him? After all, he had already found it strange how in qualifying in Istanbul, when he was meant to get the final run, he had been sent out ahead of Vettel ...

It’s not all bad news though. What must not be lost is the fact that Webber survived his team-mate’s assault and leads the championship outright, and has both McLaren drivers and Alonso between him and Vettel. His mechanical issues have happened in practice; Vettel’s have occurred in qualifying and on race day in four of seven races, plus a faulty chassis to boot. Is it simply destined to be Mark’s year? As the late Peter Brock used to say, “If it’s your day, it’s your day, nothing can stop you.” Webber can still take heart.

Had the Red Bulls gone out of the lead in less controversial circumstances, the spotlight would now be on McLaren for both the right and the wrong reasons. On a track that was thought to suit the RB6s, the silver and red cars were not only on par in terms of pace, but from one perspective they harried the Red Bulls into their collision. McLaren and Red Bull are now so far ahead of the rest that, unless something dramatic happens from Ferrari, Mercedes or Renault, the championship has become a two-team race.

What might ultimately not be such a bad thing for Red Bull is that the McLaren drivers are fighting and taking points off each other too. Hamilton bounced back from what has been a stuttering start to the season, but the talking point here was his battle with Button after they had assumed the lead, during which they too touched when Hamilton retook position. In the end, it came down to a misunderstanding about what the order to go into fuel saving mode from the pit wall actually meant.

Hamilton and his engineer Phil Prew clearly understood it to mean that Button would not challenge and that they would hold position. Jenson obviously saw it differently. This was the reigning champion’s most convincing dry-weather weekend to date. He basically matched Lewis for pace and his decision to attack his team-mate even after a fuel-saving order showed that he wants to put up a fight. After he had ultimately relented, his tetchy demeanour in the post-race press conference said as much.

What I was arguing before is that McLaren are good at maintaining absolute equality even in the face of battling drivers and when they like one more than the other. What they are not so good at is cooling the temperature when their drivers do go to war against each other. Button’s cheeky attempt to snatch the lead from Hamilton was a pre-emptive strike as the gap between them closes to a mere four points. If Red Bull can in fact get their act together, this could be a developing story for the rest of the year.

Things would not be particularly festive at Mercedes either. It was a quiet race for them, with Schumacher and Nico Rosberg starting 5th and 6th and running there for most of the race before being promoted to 4th and 5th. They have tried to develop the W01, but they were still 31 seconds off the lead - about half a second a lap. For all the talk that they can fight back, Red Bull and McLaren are moving away. There must come a time when Ross Brawn will have to concede that they are not in title reckoning.

The other thing is, while the team is standing still even if they are not going backward, since Spain Schumacher has got the better of his younger team-mate. Nico claimed after the race that he would have been faster had he not been trapped behind his team-mate all race, but that seemed to be wishful thinking. After China, Rosberg was 2nd in the championship; he has now dropped to 8th. You can almost hear the murmurs that the team has sacrificed the car’s speed and Rosberg’s position to bolster Schumacher.

But, from a pure performance perspective, the most dejected mood amongst the leading teams would have been at Ferrari, whose 800th Grand Prix was nothing short of a disaster. Felipe Massa qualified 8th and finished 7th on one of the two tracks (the other being Interlagos) where he routinely finds something extra. That tells you everything you need to know. He simply cannot generate enough front-end bite with this year’s Bridgestones, and Ferrari in general are struggling with grip and downforce.

Were it not for Red Bull’s spectacular harakiri, Alonso would have walked away with reject of the race. A mistake in qualifying left him stranded in 12th on the grid, and only an early stop for fresh tyres elevated him to 10th where he found himself stuck behind Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, only making it past just before the end around the outside of turn 3, making contact with the Russian and giving him a puncture. Afterwards, Petrov admitted that he had understeered, but Fernando also gave him precious little room.

Alonso had tried the same move on Kamui Kobayashi earlier in the race which had almost ended in tears. It is difficult to see how a move around the outside, going into a downhill corner over a crest, constitutes wisdom. Fernando’s error rate this year is staggering, in qualifying in Malaysia and Turkey, in practice at Monaco, and his false start in China. His win in Bahrain seems so long ago. He is over-driving to compensate for a car that isn’t developing as fast as he would like.

It is a measure of how far Renault have come this year that finishing 6th with Kubica seemed like a downer for Eric Boullier's men, despite them having the measure of Ferrari and matching Mercedes. It has become a two-team contest at the front with three teams in the chasing pack, and Renault the only one of those currently on an upward spiral. Kubica continued his stellar form this season, giving Rosberg no peace and easily containing Massa's threat.

But it was Petrov who was definitely the unsung hero of the weekend. On a track he knew from his GP2 days, he was able to match his Polish team-mate for the first time without over-extending himself, made it into Q3, and would have finished 8th but for his late contact with Alonso. Fastest lap of the race was scant reward in the end. He is easily the rookie of the year so far and more weekends like this will put beyond all doubt that he deserves his place in F1 and ought to retain his spot at Renault next season.

Apart from Renault, the only other team entitled to leave Istanbul with nothing but smiles on their dials was Sauber, having by far their best weekend of the year. Kobayashi snuck into Q3, Pedro de la Rosa started 13th, both cars finished for the first time, Kamui took a point for 10th despite being passed twice by Adrian Sutil, and had de la Rosa swarming around behind him at the end. Apart from the heart tremors that would have given Peter Sauber, that was much more like it from the Swiss team.

Ahead of both Saubers was Sutil, scoring more points for 9th, but Force India will not be particularly pleased. They started the year on par with Renault, but have now been left behind. With Petrov improving all the time, it could start becoming touch-and-go for further Q3 appearances and regular points finishes. Sutil himself is not the issue; his consistency this season has been spot on and he has well and truly become a team leader, whereas Vitantonio Liuzzi is the one blowing hot and cold.

The Italian may have earned himself a stay of execution with his efforts at Monaco, but another helpless Q1 exit and a nothing race has put the pressure back on straight away. Meanwhile, the team itself would be better off using its resources to eke out more performance from the VJM03, rather than suing Aerolab and Lotus and watching key technical staff leave for teams like Sauber and Lotus. The party might be ending quickly just as Force India seemed to be getting things together.

Toro Rosso, and Sebastien Buemi in particular, continue to be a magnet for trouble in the tight midfield. The Swiss driver qualified in front of Jaime Alguersuari but once again it was the young Spaniard impressing more come race day, finishing 12th and avoiding being lapped, whilst Buemi's chances were as good as over when he got hit by Nico Hulkenberg on the first lap and sustained a puncture, although he got his revenge by catching the German and passing him late in the race.

That rather summed up Hulkenberg and also Rubens Barrichello’s weekends. At this rate, Williams are on their way to their least competitive season since the 1970s, although not having their updated front wing after their Monaco accidents did not help. Still, they were only 15th and 17th in qualifying and were in the same positions in the fastest lap rankings. Barrichello had clutch issues off the line, a problem at his pit stop, and throttle problems later in the race.

In other words, the FW32 is not fast, the Cosworth engine is not powerful, and the car is not particularly reliable either. They are behind on development, and you simply cannot see where the team is going to find a quantum leap from. The way this season is going it has the potential to bring the curtain down on Barrichello’s lengthy career, and you also wonder what impact it may have on Hulkenberg, watching arguably less-credentialed newcomers like Petrov in more competitive machinery.

There wasn’t a great deal of good news for the new teams either. The Lotuses of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen were once again the fastest of the new entrants in qualifying, but still over a second behind the existing teams. Both retired almost simultaneously with hydraulics issues, causing team boss Tony Fernandes to vent his anger towards their hydraulics supplied Xtrac. It was the first time that neither T127s had been classified at the end of a Grand Prix this season.

Up to that point, they had been having a fairly competitive race against the Williams, although that probably says more about Williams’ struggles than Lotus’ capabilities. In fact, Lotus’ upgrades have not resulted in a performance surge, partly because the established outfits are also developing their cars, but the green machines also seem to be getting increasingly unreliable. Attention is already being turned towards 2011. The remaining 12 races could prove to be rather hard slog.

By contrast, this was the second race out of three that both Virgins had made the finish. Timo Glock did well to qualify just over two tenths shy of Kovalainen, whereas Lucas di Grassi continues to disappoint, qualifying 1.2s behind Glock and over 0.7s behind Bruno Senna. After starting from the pits, he would have ended up behind both HRTs too but for their late retirements, thanks to Virgin’s strategic naivety in hanging out on softer tyres for over 30 laps when the HRTs had long since changed to fresh rubber.

Senna and Karun Chandhok continue to put up a decent fight despite the limitations of their machinery, but after a run of good reliability problems are once again creeping in. This time both failed to finish (although Chandhok was classified 20th) with fuel-related issues, although Senna impressed by getting within 0.5s of Glock in qualifying. This after he had lost track time with Sakon Yamamoto piloting his car in first practice. One has to wonder if Sakon genuinely brought any developmental nous, or just a wad of yen.