Mark Webber took Red Bull’s seventh-consecutive pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix but faced a genuine challenge around the fast and sweeping Istanbul Park from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.Read the full news from formula1.com below.
TURKISH GP – WEBBER BEATS HAMILTON TO TURKEY POLE.
Mark Webber continued his recent excellent form to snatch another pole position for Red Bull on the final runs in Q3 in Turkey on Saturday afternoon, cutting beneath Lewis Hamilton’s benchmark first-run lap of 1m 26.542s with 1m 26.295s. McLaren’s Hamilton was the only other frontrunner to improve on his second run, but though he set the fastest times in the first and second sectors a weak middle sector restricted him to 1m 26.433s, which leaves him on the outside front-row position.
Sebastian Vettel had seemed to have the upper hand in Q1 and Q2, but a locking brake in Turn One on his final lap – thought to be down to a broken roll bar – left him to fall back on his first-run 1m 26.760s, which leaves him third with Jenson Button for company after the Englishman lapped the second McLaren in 1m 26.781s.
Michael Schumacher starts fifth for Mercedes GP after his final effort left him in the Turn Eight gravel following a spin. He lapped in 1m 26.857s and has team mate Nico Rosberg for company in sixth on 1m 26.952s.
After Renault’s Vitaly Petrov showed great form in Q1 and Q2, team mate Robert Kubica put him away in Q3 with 1m 27.039s for seventh, the Russian taking a nonetheless impressive ninth place with 1m 27.430s. Felipe Massa was Ferrari’s sole top 10 representative, eighth with 1m 27.082s, and Kamui Kobayashi showed some of his 2009 flair with 10th for BMW Sauber on 1m 28.122s.
The times in Q2 were incredibly close, with half a second covering third fastest Lewis Hamilton down to 11th fastest Force India’s Adrian Sutil. The major surprise of Q2 was Fernando Alonso’s failure to make it through. He’d been on the bubble when what looked like a quick lap was spoiled as the Ferrari twitched into oversteer in the final sequence of corners. That lap ruined, the Spaniard failed on his next try, too.
He was not the fastest of the fallers, however. That was Sutil who did a great job but just couldn’t squeeze more than 1m 27.525s out of his Force India. Then came Alonso on 1m 27.612s, BMW Sauber’s Pedro de la Rosa on 1m 27.879s, Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Buemi on 1m 28.273s, Williams’ Rubens Barrichello on 1m 28.392s, Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari on 1m 28.540s and Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 28.841s in the second Williams.
Already in Q1 Vitantonio Liuzzi had led those who failed to make it through, still complaining of understeer as his Force India was set up to alleviate its weak rear end. He lapped in 1m 28.958s, then came the Lotuses of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen on 1m 30.237s and 1m 30.519s respectively, Timo Glock’s Virgin which improved well to 1m 30.744s, Bruno Senna’s HRT on 1m 31.266s, Lucas di Grassi’s Virgin on 1m 31.989s, and Karun Chandhok’s HRT on 1m 32.060s.
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