Sebastian Vettel was fastest in all three qualifying sessions today at Istanbul and picked up his second pole position of the season for Red Bull.
Pole position changed hands three times in the final moments of a terrific session. First Mark Webber grabbed it, then Jenson Button went faster, but Vettel got the lap which mattered.
Jenson Button again had a quiet build up, with various set up issues to be resolved in practice, but delievered a big lap at the end to start alongside Vettel on the front row. But the early indications are that the Brawn may have a lap or two more fuel onboard, which could count in their favour tactically in the race.
Rubens Barrichello was third, but went his own way in Q3; whereas Vettel and Button went with the soft tyre, Barrichello did three consecutive laps on the hard tyre, the last of which gave him third place.
Mark Webber was very late going out in Q2 and managed to get through to Q3 with only one run in that session and never looked like he had the pace of his team mate. He was a tenth slower in Q1, four tenths in Q2 and three tenths in Q3.
Jarno Trulli did a good job to restore some pride to Toyota after a couple of tough weekends. He lines up 5th, but was second fastest in Q2 , whereas team mate Glock was eliminated in Q2 and lines up 13th on the grid tomorrow.
McLaren had a tough day, the car is clearly not confidence inspiring in fast corners. Hekki Kovalainen is 14th on the grid, while Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 for the second race in a row. He is enduring the kind of time that Jenson Button was having this time last year.
Fuel weights should be out around 3pm UK time and we will have a better idea then of how the race will unfold.
The Ferrari challenge was more blunt than anticipated. Felipe Massa, the winner at this track for the last three years, was a whisker behind his team mate, the Ferraris 6th and 7th.
allenonf1.wordpress.com 
Hang on, is there a race on this weekend?
Allegedly…
Looks like it could be a great race tommorrow with the Brawn/Red Bull battle not being ruined by KERs cars.
What is the fuel consumption per lap in Istanbul? I can’t find that info anywhere.
2.6 kilos per lap
Weights have been published; looks like Button did a great job and stands a great chance of taking this from Vettel if he can keep him in his sights. Rubens, well, not so good. Webber’s going to be a real threat to him.
Lewis needs to be less understanding and supportive of ‘the guys back at the factory.’
He needs to go toe to toe with the head of the design team and let rip. The company have 1000 + employees, employ the world’s best engineers have a whole year to develop a championship winning car that’s sympathetic to the driving style of an extraordinary WDC and what do they produce? A pile of junk, that’s what!
If MW hasn’t already fired the incompetent responsible for putting this debacle on a race track than Hamilton should be demanding his head, whilst he skulks in the shadows known only to a relative few the world champion’s embarrassment is clear to all.
Just as for drivers there can be no excuses for a season of poor performances, designers are equally culpable for the woeful cars that they produce and should be sacked. The problem at Mclaren isn’t Hamilton it’s the head of design.
they already did fire him, bu there lies the irony, it was the guy getting all the info which led to the spygate scandal, McL wouldnt have been anywhere near Ferrari in the last two seasons otherwise, and now that they have had to build a new car requiring a new philosophy alltogether and new design regulations, they produce a lemon, and quite bitter one too! convenient timing? quite the co-incidence eh?
[…] on the roll. Every single factor is falling into his lap during race weekends. Sebastian Vettel started from the pole position in this years Turkish Grand Prix but his Red Bull ran wide during lap one and certain Button […]