Vettel claims pole position in Istanbul

Sebastian Vettel took his fourth consecutive pole position of the season today at the Istanbul Park.

The Red Bull driver dominated the qualifying session to make sure he would be starting the Turkish Grand Prix from the best place possible. For the first time this season, he will be joined on the front row by his teammate Mark Webber… which sets the scene for a thrilling start of the race.

Nico Rosberg confirmed Mercedes’ good shape this weekend in taking third place on the grid. Lewis Hamilton qualified fourth for McLaren. Alonso and Button will start from the third row. Petrov and Schumacher will form the fourth row while Heidfeld and Massa will be sharing the fifth row.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out :

Q1

The teams were in no rush to send their cars on track as the light went green.

There was some early drama for Kobayashi. The Japanese had to abort his first flying lap after Turn 6 and his Sauber then ground to a halt near the pitlane entrance and had to be pushed by the marshals

Meanwhile, the other drivers posted their first times on the board. Sebastian Vettel took the lead with his teammate Mark Webber slotting in 2nd position. Rosberg was third, Buemi fourth and Alonso fifth.

Hamilton and Button then moved up in the top four, close to the Red Bulls. The Renault drivers left it late in this segment and were the last men yet to clock a time (apart from Kobayashi). They easily made it into the top ten and through to Q2.

By this time, Paul di Resta was at risk of being eliminated. The Scot was down in 18th place, splitting the Lotuses. He managed to improve and moved out of the drop zone. In the meantime, Massa used up a set of soft tyre to go fastest.

Kovalainen, Trulli, d’Ambrosio, Liuzzi, Glock, Karthikeyan and Kobayashi were eliminated. The Japanese should be joined on the last row by d’Ambrosio as the Belgian received a five-place grid penalty (didn’t slow for yellow flags in FP3).

Q2

Michael Schumacher set the early benchmark but was largely beaten by his soft tyre-shod rivals. Vettel was fastest of all with a 1’25’’610. Hamilton slotted in 2nd position, 0.3s adrift of the Red Bull driver. Webber was third with Alonso fourth for Ferrari.

Halfway through this segment, Schumacher was in the drop zone alongside Petrov, Maldonado, Alguersuari, Sutil, Heidfeld and di Resta.

Petrov and Schumacher were the first to blink, with merely five minutes to go. They were soon joined on track by the Williams of Barrichello and Maldonado. Rosberg and di Resta were next to leave the pits.

Schumacher moved up to P4 while his teammate claimed P2. di Resta improved his time but it was not enough for him to make it through to Q3.

The drivers eliminated were Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil, Paul di Resta, Pastor Maldonado, Sergio Pérez, Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari – who didn’t come out for a second run.

Q3

Petrov kicked off the action with a 1’26’’411, slightly faster than his Q2 time, but was quickly overhauled. Button, Alonso and Webber bettered his mark… before Sebastian Vettel stormed at the front with a 1’25’’049.

The reigning World Champion had one hand on the pole position and was four tenths of a second faster than his teammate Webber. Hamilton was third fastest ahead of Alonso.

Massa, Schumacher, Rosberg and Heidfeld opted to do only one run in this segment. They left the pits with two and a half minutes left and were joined by Alonso and Button. Petrov and Hamilton also decided to give it another go… unlike the Red Bulls who stayed in the pits.

None of them was able to challenge Vettel’s time and the German held on to pole position. Webber retained second place making it an all Red Bull front row. Rosberg pipped Hamilton to third on the grid.

Massa didn’t complete a timed lap and will thus start from tenth place.