Webber secures Turkish pole position

F1 Grand Prix, GP Turkey, Istanbul Park

Mark Webber is still on form after his dominant displays in the previous two Grand Prix. This marks his third consecutive pole and has a chance to make it 3 consecutive race wins tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton is second on tomorrow's grid, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button.

Jarno Trulli kicked off Q1, followed by both Virgin Racing drivers. The quickest of the new teams is hoping for another step forward, while Virgin aims to top Lotus during this qualifying. The first laps don't look promising for Virgin though, as Lotus is easily ahead of them.

5 minutes later Alonso puts in a fast lap, quickly topped by Button. Hamilton joins in a tiny bit slower than his teammate. As usual, the quickest teams are running Q1 on the harder compound tires.

The Red Bulls, who ditched their F-duct for this race after testing it for the first time on Friday, waited until 10 minutes into the session before coming out. No reason to worry though, as both are quickly on top of the time sheets after 2 consecutive flying laps.

In the closing stages of the session, Tonio Liuzzi is once again under pressure. He spun off during his second attempt and finally failed to improve. He's out out qualifying after Q1 while Sutil is 10th. Eliminated together with Liuzzi in 18th are Trulli, Kovalainen, Glock, Senna, Di Grassi and Chandhok.

As Q2 goes green, Robert Kubica is the first the take the track, setting a 1:27.487, quickly topped by Vettel but initially faster than Schumacher, Button and Sutil. Hamilton then tops Vettel a minute later, posting a 1:27.013. Vettel's second lap however is again fastest, 0.088s better than the fastest McLaren.

With the final laps kicking off, Michael Schumacher puts in personal best times but eventually ends up in 10th, just into Q3. Alonso on the other hand is struggling badly with his Ferrari. His first lap was flawed by a rear brake lock at the end of the straight, while one lap later there are no obvious mistakes but he is only 12th, a highly unusual performance for the Spaniard as Felipe Massa is 5th in Q2.

Vettel was quickest though, ahead of Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg. Sutil is out in 11th place, together with Alonso, De La Rosa, Buemi, Barrichello, Alguersuari and Hulkenberg.

Kubica then is the first out on track in Q3, and sets a 1:27.0 on his first attempt, a promising start of Q3 for him. 5 minutes later Mark Webber is on top, ahead of Hamilton and Vettel. The latter had a good lap until the final sector where he ruined a provisional pole.

Jenson Button is 4th after his first quick lap, followed by Schumacher, Rosberg, Kubica, Massa and Petrov. Kobayashi only hits the track 4 minutes ahead of the end, aiming to use the track's calmness to enjoy a traffic free ride.

In the second attempts, Hamilton is slower in the middle sector while Webber shaved off another two tenths off of his earlier lap. Vettel made a mistake in turn 1 and hence failed to improve, but he is still 3rd on tomorrow's grid.