Vettel supreme in Turkey

Sebastian Vettel maintained his perfect qualifying record in 2011 by storming to pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix.

Red Bull take one-two in qualifying for Turkish Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel maintained his perfect qualifying record in 2011 by storming to pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix. Having already taken top spot at each of the first three rounds of the season, the world champion set a time of 1 minute 25.049 seconds to comfortably see off the competition at Istanbul Park. Mark Webber completed an all-Red Bull front row by setting the second fastest time, while Nico Rosberg gave Mercedes a lift by grabbing third place. Neither of them came close to Vettel, however, who finished over four tenths ahead of his team-mate and more than half a second up on Rosberg. Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fourth place in front of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who split the two McLarens with Jenson Button in sixth. Vitaly Petrov was the first driver to set a time in the final part of qualifying but his mark was quickly beaten by Button and then Alonso. Webber then showed the pace Red Bull had in their locker by going fastest by almost four tenths before Vettel stepped in with an even more dominant benchmark.

Confidence

The German driver just failed to break a 1:24-lap time and did not even bother to go out again for the final round of flying laps. Red Bull also kept Webber in the pits and their confidence paid off as Rosberg improved to third but could not dislodge the top two. Hamilton was not able to match the Mercedes driver and will start fourth in front of Alonso and Button, while Petrov, Michael Schumacher, Nick Heidfeld and Felipe Massa complete the top 10. The Red Bulls occupied the top two places for most of Q1 as Kamui Kobayashi was eliminated when his Sauber ground to a halt just before the pit lane. Massa took over at the summit towards the end of the session, although he used a set of the softer compound tyres to do so. There were no other surprises in the first session and Vettel asserted his dominance early in the second, becoming the first driver to get into the 1:25s all weekend. Rosberg slotted into second place as all the big names made it through to the top-10 shootout with the two Williams cars, the two Force Indias, the two Toro Rossos and the remaining Sauber of Sergio Perez dropping out. Qualifying times
01. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 01:25.049 12 laps
02. Mark Webber Red Bull 01:25.454 10 laps
03. Nico Rosberg Mercedes Grand Prix 01:25.574 15 laps
04. Lewis Hamilton McLaren 01:25.595 13 laps
05. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 01:25.851 16 laps
06. Jenson Button McLaren 01:25.982 14 laps
07. Vitaly Petrov Renault 01:26.296 15 laps
08. Michael Schumacher Mercedes Grand Prix 01:26.646 13 laps
09. Nick Heidfeld Renault 01:26.659 13 laps
10. Felipe Massa Ferrari no time 16 laps
11. Rubens Barrichello Williams 01:26.764 10 laps
12. Adrian Sutil Force India F1 01:27.027 14 laps
13. Paul di Resta Force India F1 01:27.145 11 laps
14. Pastor Maldonado Williams 01:27.236 14 laps
15. Sergio Perez Sauber 01:27.244 11 laps
16. Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:27.255 9 laps
17. Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso 01:27.572 7 laps
18. Heikki Kovalainen Team Lotus 01:28.780 8 laps
19. Jarno Trulli Team Lotus 01:29.673 8 laps
20. Jerome d' Ambrosio Virgin Racing 01:30.445 7 laps
21. Vitantonio Liuzzi Hispania 01:30.692 8 laps
22. Timo Glock Virgin Racing 01:30.813 8 laps
23. Narain Karthikeyan Hispania 01:31.564 2 laps
24. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber no time