Vettel pips Button to pole in Turkey
Eurosport - Sun, 07 Jun 12:55:00 2009
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull on pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix after pushing Formula One leader Jenson Button off his pedestal in the final seconds of qualifying.
Button's Brawn GP team mate Rubens Barrichello will start third on Sunday in a race that looks like a duel between the two teams with Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber completing the second row.
The pole was Vettel's career third and established the 21-year-old as favourite at a circuit where the winner has always started from the top slot since the first race in Turkey in 2005.
"Finally we made it; in the last couple of races we tried very hard and now we are ahead of these white cars," said Vettel, whose two previous wins came from pole position.
"We will try our best to keep this statistic alive but it won't be easy.
"I think we have a very good chance here, a very good car. I expected more difficulties in qualifying, it wasn't easy but we made it," added the German, who suffered an engine failure in Friday practice that cost him track time.
Button, who had been going for his third pole in a row after winning five of the season's six races, acknowledged that history favoured the man on pole position.
"We're going to try and change that tomorrow," he added.
Car weights published by the governing FIA showed that Vettel had qualified with two to three laps less fuel in his car than Button, with the Red Bull tipping the scales at 649.5kg and the leading Brawn at 655.5.
Button was fuelled to go longer than Barrichello (652.5kg) while Webber's car weighed in at 656.0kg.
Only a sprinkling of spectators turned out to enjoy a gloriously sunny afternoon at the Istanbul Park circuit, with rows of empty seats in the grandstands reflecting the credit crunch and an apparent lack of interest among locals.
Italian Jarno Trulli qualified fifth for Toyota, a boost for the Japanese team after a dismal Monaco Grand Prix weekend, with Ferrari's 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen alongside him.
"We have made big improvements and it's nice to be back at the front where we belong," said Trulli, whose team have yet to win a race since their debut in 2002.
Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa, who is chasing his fourth successive Turkish Grand Prix after taking pole position for the past three years, qualified seventh.
McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton had another difficult afternoon and will start 16th after failing to make it through the first qualifying session for the second race in succession.
"I pushed as hard as I could today but I just had no grip out there," said Hamilton.
"We now need to make sure we don't rush into making too many changes to the car...we'll take our time, refine things and sort out the problem with our car," added the 24-year-old, who is 42 points adrift of Button.
"This is clearly going to be a challenging year for us, but I have no doubts that we'll bounce back."
Hamilton was beaten by Force India's Adrian Sutil, who starts 15th after reaching the second part of qualifying for the second race in a row.
Qualifying results
1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) RedBull-Renault 1 min 28.316 secs
2. Jenson Button (Britain) Brawn-Mercedes 1:28.421
3. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil) Brawn-Mercedes 1:28.579
4. Mark Webber (Australia) RedBull-Renault 1:28.613
5. Jarno Trulli (Italy) Toyota 1:28.666
6. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:28.815
7. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Ferrari 1:28.858
8. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Renault 1:29.075
9. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Williams-Toyota 1:29.191
10. Robert Kubica (Poland) BMW Sauber 1:29.357
11. Nick Heidfeld (Germany) BMW Sauber 1:27.521
12. Kazuki Nakajima (Japan) Williams-Toyota 1:27.629
13.Timo Glock (Germany) Toyota 1:27.795
14. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland) McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.207
15. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Force India-Mercedes 1:28.391
16. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) McLaren-Mercedes 1:28.318
17. Nelson Piquet (Brazil) Renault 1:28.582
18. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.708
19. Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy) Force India-Mercedes 1:28.717
20. Sebastien Bourdais (France) Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:28.918
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Comment 168 - 187 of 187
so much for pole,a load of BULL red.
GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jenson!
GO GO GO JENSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go JENSON!
Jarno Trulli is the winner!
get back on the darts pages bristow.
Come on Ferrari,dont pass to many on the start.
Come on Ferrari,dont pass to many on the start.
Come on Ferrari,dont pass to many on the start.
I HOPE BUTTON GOES OUT AND WE CAN HAVE A PROPPER RACE FOR A CHANGE.
THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN EXITING SEASON BUT SO FAR HAS JUST BEEN @#$%.
NO ONE WANTS TO SEE 1 DRIVER WIN EVERY WEEK, MIGHT AS WELL HAVE SHUEY BACK AGAIN.
COME ON THE OTHER TEAMS GET YOUR ACTS TOGETHER!!!!!!!!
Nice to see that its not just a 2 horse race between Ferrari and McLaren anymore. Good luck to Jenson Button fly the flag for Britain...
peter peter peter wat can i say . yer 100 pircent rigt. sum ofa these yahooos thin tha buffoons isa tha holy gale of moter car racin. thay wer sayin tha same thin las yeer bout hampstar. 16eeth say it al.
touron is number one on f1.
Stick Sutil in a Brawn car and he would win. Driver ability means nothing.
Jeanette Bolan: If you are the character that plays those ID's and are asking who are our favorite characters, well then you are one very sick b.i.t.c.h and you should be in a mental hospital. Because simple you are insane and so s.c.r.e.w.e.d in the head that you need help, so many good F1 fans have put up with your constant c.r.a.p for many months that if any one on this site ever met you face to face they would slap you silly. Because if you were a man you would have the living s.h.i.t beaten out of you. Now I will conduct a poll. Thumbs up if you agree with me and thumbs down if you think this clown has benefited this site with here c.r.a.p.
D.Bristow
Button will pull away from Vettel and win the race ,Red bulls are good but Browns are faster in the race and Button's driving style looks after the tyres better than the others.And Button will be in the lead on the first lap.
I KNOW - TAKE SOME MORE JELLIES and morning opiates then I'll even have a warm place in my heart for mourontoot xx you schizoid freak
I KNOW - TAKE SOME MORE JELLIES and morning opiates then I'll even have a warm place in my heart for mourontoot xx you schizoid freak
PODIUM finish for BRAWN/BUTTON +++ double WORLD CHAMP ~~~~ ALONSO
the two most skilled drivers to benefit from todays existing equipment conditions
with silky smoothe tyre technique to progress just that little bit further
than the rough & ready crowd who throw their cars around the circuit
'lovely toa see a mr a hamilton asun back inna 16th a place' - no where near as lovely as knowing what a sad and pathetic life you have.......trust me I'm a Doxtor. Oh and don't bother coming back with a 'witty' reply coz I'm loggin off till game time. ta ta morons
I KNOW - TAKE SOME MORE JELLIES and morning opiates then I'll even have a warm place in my heart for mourontoot xx you freak
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