Sebastian Vettel brought an end to Jenson Button's spate of pole positions as he crossed the line 0.105s ahead of the Brawn GP driver at the Istanbul Park circuit on Saturday.
Vettel, who hadn't shown much pace in the weekend's final practice session, came good when it really mattered to take the coveted grid slot, with a 1:28.316. It was the Red Bull driver's second pole of the season and once again highlights that he is Brawn GP's biggest threat.
As for Button, he had to settle for second place on the grid with his team-mate Rubens Barrichello finishing behind him. Mark Webber and Jarno Trulli were next in line, having qualified ahead of the two Ferraris, Kimi Raikkonen in front of Felipe Massa.
Meanwhile, defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton failed to make it through Q1 as his McLaren lacked the pace and stability needed around this high speed track.
Qualifying 1
The characteristic close grid had tightened over the three practices with the gap between first place and twentieth at 1.9 seconds in first practice, 1.7 in the second and 1.4 in the third.
In bright sunlight at the Istanbul Otodrom the ambient temperature stood at 28C with the track at 46C. The track temperature was critical because Bridgestone had supplied their hard and soft compounds for the race weekend. Any warmer than 46C and they estimated that the harder tyre would be the fastest, any colder and it would be the soft.
Nick Heidfeld set the first meaningful P1 time at 1:28.794 in the revised BMW with its new double deck rear diffuser. This was edged steadily downwards as a succession of drivers took P1: Raikkonen, Trulli, Nakajima, Massa, Rosberg, Vettel, Nakajima on his second quick lap, Raikkonen (out for a second time) and then Jarno Trulli at 1:27.529
Having done little to the threaten the top five places in the timesheets over the whole weekend Sebastian Vettel then set the timing screens alight with a P1 of 1:27.330.
Nelson Piquet was enduring another torrid weekend with his Renault, appearing on cameras drifting sideways like a rally car in the fearsome Turn 8. It would be a consistent problem for both Renault drivers through the qualifying period.
As the clock ticked down to three minutes, the danger positions were: 11.Alonso, 12.Heidfeld, 13.Kovalainen, 14.Glock, 15.Sutil, 16.Hamilton, 17.Piquet, 18.Buemi, 19.Fisichella, 20.Bourdais.
Lewis Hamilton was finding his McLaren very difficult to drive and whereas the Brawn of Jenson Button looked extraordinarily smooth, Hamilton looked twitchy and uncommitted through Turn 8.
He failed to get into the top 15 on his final run just as brake failure on Nelson Piquet's cars put him into the gravel and out. In the closing seconds it was less about moves at the back of the field and more about moves at the front as the Brawns of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello sprung up to P2 and P3 respectively.
So out of qualifying went:
16.Hamilton
17.Piquet
18.Buemi
19.Fisichella
20.Bourdais.
Hamilton was the only major casualty of the session which saw a return to form for the BMWs.
Qualifying 2
With the track temperature dipping to 44C the green-walled soft tyres became more prominent as the tyre of choice. Nico Rosberg set P1 at 1:27.672, Felipe Massa reduced this to 1:27.462 on soft tyres. Rubens Barrichello took P1 with a 1:27.418 and Jenson Button hammered it down to 1:27.322.
Despite two purple (fastest) sectors Sebastian Vettel could only manage P2 on 1:27.333. He went round for a second lap to try and improve, set two more fastest sectors in S1 and S2 and then promptly dived down the pitlane.
As we got to the three-minutes-to-go mark there was just 0.25 separating P1 and P10.
The danger positions were: 7.Heidfeld, 8.Rosberg, 9.Raikkonen, 10.Alonso, 11.Nakajima, 12.Glock, 13.Kovalainen, 14.Sutil, 15.Webber (who had had to ditch his first timed run after running wide at Turn 8)
In the last few minutes everyone, including P1 man Button, took to the circuit for a final run. Across the line they came. Mark Webber made himself safe by grabbing P3, Kimi Raikkonen took P3, Timo Glock could only manage a disastrous P13, to rub this in team-mate Jarno Trulli took P1 with a 1:27.195, seconds later that was deposed by Vettel with a sensational 1:27.016. Alonso squeezed into P9, Rosberg took P8 and Heikki Kovalainen cemented McLaren's misery in P14.
So out went:
11. Heidfeld (just 0.5 off P1)
12.Nakajima
13.Glock
14.Kovalainen
15.Sutil
Kovalainen's exit was not surprising, but it was rare to see Timo Glock fall so short of Jarno Trulli, while the big news was that Robert Kubica had actually got his BMW into Q3 for a change.
Qualifying 3
The track was back to 46C for the final session and so drivers could choose to do one banzai lap on softs, one slow and one fast lap on softs, or two/three fast laps on hards.
Kimi Raikkonen set a tentative P1 with a 1:29.405, which Jarno Trulli sailed inside with a 1:28.858. On his first run Button could only set the P2 time before Sebastian Vettel claimed P1 with a 1:28.801.
Rubens Barrichello went out late with the idea of reeling off three timed laps - the last intended to be the fastest. After the first hot laps the positions were: Vettel, Trulli, Button, Webber, Alonso, Raikkonen, Massa, Barrichello, Kubica and Rosberg.
Fernando Alonso had an off-track excursion at Turn 8 like his team-mate which meaned he wouldn't keep his P5 for much longer. Rubens jumped to P7 but had another lap left.
Kimi Raikkonen took P2 as his fuel level reduced, but team-mate Felipe Massa looked curiously sluggish. Webber jumped into provisional pole which lasted for several seconds before Jenson Button crossed the line with a 1:28.421, Trulli couldn't better it and came home in P3 while Rubens crossed the line in P2.
All eyes switched to Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull as he set the fastest first sector, but went slower than Jenson in S2. Coming into the final turns he was still ahead, though, and crossing the line he clinched pole by 0.1 of a second. Making it a Red Bull, Brawn, Brawn, Red Bull mirror across the first two rows.
Ross Brawn was quick to admit that they were fuelled to Lap 17 and early indications are that the Red Bulls are fuelled to around Lap 15. Which means the Brawn cars are potentially still the quickest out there.
For the race; Jenson Button has been quicker off the line than Vettel this year and has the inside line for a Turn 1 that comes up very quickly. However Button will know that Barrichello has pulled two great starts on him this year and will be keen to get ahead. Certainly there is the potential for an all-out race between the top three drivers in the World Championship when the red lights go out tomorrow.
FH
Times
01 S. Vettel Red Bull 1:28.316
02 J. Button Brawn GP 1:28.421
03 R. Barrichello Brawn GP 1:28.579
04 M. Webber Red Bull 1:28.613
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:28.666
06 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:28.815
07 F. Massa Ferrari 1:28.858
08 F. Alonso Renault 1:29.075
09 N. Rosberg Williams 1:29.191
10 R. Kubica BMW 1:29.357
11 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:27.521
12 K. Nakajima Williams 1:27.629
13 T. Glock Toyota 1:27.795
14 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:28.207
15 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:28.391
16 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:28.318
17 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:28.582
18 S. Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.708
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:28.717
20 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.918
Source : Planet F1
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