Vettel takes pole in Turkey
A confident Sebastian Vettel |
Come and catch me boys. Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel make a statement to the rest of the teams in qualifying for Sunday's Grand prix of Turkey by setting a quick time early in Q3 and then not bothering to even go out for a 2nd run in Q3, yet still took pole with a 1m25.049s lap.
His teammate Mark Webber was 2nd at 1m25.454s and Nico Rosberg was third in his Mercedes proving the German team has improved dramatically.
Lewis Hamilton was 4th for McLaren and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top-5 in his Ferrari.
Sebastian Vettel is driving like a true World Champion |
It was Vettel's 19th F1 pole and 4th of this year. He has won pole for every race so far in his Red Bull Renault.
“I’m very happy. It was a bit funny in Q3 today, as both Mark and I decided we would skip the second run and so we finished earlier than normal," said Vettel.
"It was a strange feeling, as the other cars are on track setting times and you are in the garage watching – they might beat you, but you can only watch the screens and there’s nothing you can do. It was an odd feeling but a good decision to save tires for tomorrow’s race. I messed up the car yesterday morning, so we missed the session in the afternoon, but the guys fixed it for today and I think they did a very good job. We have been up there with the times today, although we didn’t have a trouble free morning and we had a bit to catch up. I like the track here which helps and it was nice to see that, without many laps, I was able to come back and find the rhythm, so all-in-all I’m very happy today."
Red Bull saved a set of tires for the race Sunday by sitting out both Vettel and Webber from the final run in Q3.
“I would have liked to have got a couple more tenths to have the margin; obviously Sebastian did a very good lap for pole, but my lap wasn’t too bad," said Webber.
"We spoke before qualifying and decided that, as tomorrow is going to be a long race, every lap you could save today might help tomorrow. It turns out that we’re in the best possible grid positions and the team did a good job, as we have saved a set of tires too, so it’s looking good. There were some good decisions from the team. I’m happy with today and am looking forward to tomorrow’s race."
Results
POS |
DRIVER | NATIONALITY | TEAM | TIME |
1. | Sebastian Vettel | Germany | Red Bull-Renault | 1:25.049 |
2. | Mark Webber | Australia | Red Bull-Renault | 1:25.454 |
3. | Nico Rosberg | Germany | Mercedes GP | 1:25.574 |
4. | Lewis Hamilton | Britain | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.595 |
5. | Fernando Alonso | Spain | Ferrari | 1:25.851 |
6. | Jenson Button | Britain | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:25.982 |
7. | Vitaly Petrov | Russia | Renault | 1:26.296 |
8. | Michael Schumacher | Germany | Mercedes GP | 1:26.646 |
9. | Nick Heidfeld | Germany | Renault | 1:26.659 |
10. | Felipe Massa | Brazil | Ferrari | No Time |
11. | Rubens Barrichello | Brazil | Williams-Cosworth | 1:26.764 |
12. | Adrian Sutil | Germany | Force India-Mercedes | 1:27.027 |
13. | Paul di Resta | Britain | Force India-Mercedes | 1:27.145 |
14. | Pastor Maldonado | Venezuela | Williams-Cosworth | 1:27.236 |
15. | Sergio Perez | Mexico | Sauber-Ferrari | 1:27.244 |
16. | Sebastien Buemi | Switzerland | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:27.255 |
17. | Jaime Alguersuari | Spain | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1:27.572 |
18. | Heikki Kovalainen | Finland | Lotus-Renault | 1:28.780 |
19. | Jarno Trulli | Italy | Lotus-Renault | 1:29.673 |
20. | Jerome d'Ambrosio | Belgium | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:30.445 |
21. | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Italy | HRT-Cosworth | 1:30.692 |
22. | Timo Glock | Germany | Virgin-Cosworth | 1:30.813 |
23. | Narain Karthikeyan | India | HRT-Cosworth | 1:31.564 |
24. | Kamui Kobayashi | Japan | Sauber-Ferrari | No Time |