FORMULA 1 Live

Turkish GP - *Qualifying

Saturday May 10, 2008 | Finished

  1. Massa claims third straight Istanbul pole

    Massa claims third straight Istanbul pole

    Ferrari's Felipe Massa set his sights on a Turkish Grand Prix hat-trick after taking pole position for the third year in a row. More

Qualifying live standing

P. Driver Team Time
1 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:27.617
2 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren 0:00.796
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 0:00.911
4 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 0:00.924
5 Robert Kubica BMW 0:01.378
6 Mark Webber Red Bull 0:01.405
7 Fernando Alonso Renault 0:01.410
8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 0:01.824
9 Nick Heidfeld BMW 0:01.870
10 David Coulthard Red Bull 0:01.947
11 Nico Rosberg Williams 0:00.000
12 Rubens Barrichello Honda 0:00.207
13 Jenson Button Honda 0:00.286
14 Sebastien Vettel Toro Rosso 0:00.400
15 Timo Glock Toyota 0:00.794
16 Kazuki Nakajima Williams 0:00.535
17 Nelsinho Piquet Jr Renault 0:00.556
18 Sebastien Bourdais Toro Rosso 0:00.609
19 Giancarlo Fisichella Force India 0:00.795
20 Adrian Sutil Force India 0:01.313

Live Commentary

  1. 13:05 Thanks for following our coverage of qualifying and join us tomorrow at 13:00 BST for full coverage of the Turkish Grand Prix.

  2. 0' Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen went first in front of Hamilton, but Massa immediately overtook him on the final lap to claim a third successive pole (1:27.617) at Istanbul! Kimi Raikkonen can only come in fourth behind Hamilton. Second and third not bad for McLaren. Kubica fifth, Webber sixth, Alonso seventh, Trulli eighth, and Heidfeld ninth.

  3. 1' The back end is really failing to grip with those harder tyres, and Hamilton is making up no time on his Ferrari rivals at the start of this critical final lap..... The McLaren man is giving it all he has in the last end of thiis, and he could actually move up on the grid...... Into second!! 1:27.923 just behind Massa!! Hamilton was the fastest man on the final sector.

  4. 7' Lewis Hamilton is going to go into his final lap on the harder tyres, and that will probably cost him severely!

  5. 6' Felipe Massa claims to own this track, and he has a very good claim now taking provisional pole in a storming time of 1:27.986! Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen (#plus;0.548) is second, Kubica is third, Alonso fourth, and Hamilton fifth.

  6. 5' Lewis Hamilton (1:29.093), on the harder tyre now, goes top. WeÂ’ll have to see how that stacks up with Raikkonen and Massa shortly.

  7. 4' Jarno Trulli (Toyota) is the first to set a time at 1:20.299 for the truly provisional pole.

  8. 0' And the final session is underway. Who will take pole? We'll know shortly....

  9. 15' So there you have it. The cut looks like this : 11. Rosberg 12. Barrichello 13. Button 14. Vettel 15. Glock

  10. 14' Vettel up to 11th, but that's not enough to reach the third and final qualifying session. Rosberg, however, moves up to tenth to drop out of the danger zone. And Webber is up to fifth. And Heidfeld escapes the bottom five into ninth, though Jenson Button cannot.

  11. 11' In the danger zone with four minutes left: 11. Barrichello 12. Rosberg 13. Vettel 14. Glock 15. Button - The leaders are in the pits.

  12. 9' Hamilton into third at 0.427 behind his Championship rival.

  13. 7' A great lap from the defending champ Kimi Raikkonen (1:26.050), who goes top. Massa is about 0.15 seconds slower than his team-mate on his first lap of the session.

  14. 6' David Coulthard, who was third in the final free practice goes quickest, but the Scot is quickly surpassed by Trulli, Webber and Alonso (1:26:522) with the Spaniard now in the lead.

  15. 4' And Fernando Alonso, who was ninth in that first session, is one of the first men on the track in this second qualifying session.

  16. 0' Second portion of qualifying underway!

  17. 12:25 As you can see the top three spots from the qualifying go to Massa, Hamilton, and Raikkonen.

  18. 20' Rubens Barrichello escapes from the danger zone with a time of 1:27.355, while Kazuki Nakajima (1:27.547) has fallen into the bottom five and Piquet Jr. has not made the cut either. That spells an end to the first part of qualifying with 16. Nakajima 17. Piquet Jr. 18. Bourdais 19. Fisichella and 20. Sutil suffering the axe.

  19. 20' Massa fastest now in 1:25.994, as Ferrari decided to go for another lap, while McLaren have opted to return to the pits.

  20. 19' Currently in the bottom five spots - 20. Adrian Sutil 19. Rubens Barrichello 18. Giancarlo Fisichella 17. Sebastien Bourdais 16. Nelsinho Piquet Jr

  21. 12' Just so you know, it's the bottom five that go out of this first qualifying session after the rule changes that have been introduce following the loss of the Super Aguri team from the grid.

  22. 9' The track has obviously had sufficient time to dry from this morning, as Lewis Hamilton takes the fastest time we've seen all weekend to move into the top position with a 1:26.192.

  23. 8' Kimi Raikkonen is looking a lot better than he did in todayÂ’s final practice session and he easily takes the lead in 1:26.766. Lewis Hamilton also on his first lap now, is quicker through the first few sectors than his Ferrari rival.

  24. 5' Timo Glock, eighth in the final free practice behind Lewis Hamilton, sets the provisional top time of 1:27.412 at the start of this qualifying session. The big guns just about to take to the track.

  25. 4' Giancarlo Fisichella, 18th in the final free practice, starts things off with a time of 1:29.273.

  26. 0' The qualifying session for the Turkish GP in Istanbul is underway, and the weather seems to be holding up for now!

Circuit Map

Istanbul Circuit
 

About the Turkish GP

Length 5.338 km
Laps 58 (309.356 Km)
Last Year 1, 2, 3 1. F. Massa 2. K. Raikkonen 3. F. Alonso
Record Lap J-P. Montoya - 1'24''770 (2005, McLaren)
Record Pole K. Raikkonen - 1'26''797 (2005, McLaren)
Last Year Pole F. Massa - 1'27''329 (Ferrari)

Previous winners

Year Driver
2007 F. Massa (Ferrari)
2006 F. Massa (Ferrari)
2005 K. Raikkonen (McLaren)