Red Bull Delight in Turkey – Qualifying as it happened

The Turkish GP always provides an entertaining race, but following another devastating demonstration of speed from Sebastian Vettel, it will take a very special effort from team mate Webber or a stunning drive by one of the other top eight to keep the reigning champ from running away with the title at this early stage in the season…  Here’s qualifying as it happened:

Qualifying Round 1

Qualifying for the Turkish GP was eventful from the start with the ever promising Kobayashi in his ever-improving Sauber taking an early exit in Round 1.  A special mention for Kovalainen in his Team Lotus car, who finished 17th and only 0.5s off the Williams of Maldonado – the green and yellow cars really are getting closer and closer to being a midfield team.

Qualifying Round 2

Rubens Barrichello so very nearly made it through to the final round of qualifying – it was only Nick Heidfeld’s final flying lap that push him out of the top 10 and into 11th place.   Force India and Toro Rosso will be a tad annoyed, the first few races of the season showed they had consistent potential to break into the top 10, but chances were cooked in Turkey with neither team having a single car progress to Q3.  Suaber’s day took a similar blow with Perez only managing 15th.

Qualifying Round 3 – Pole Position Shootout

Despite smashing his car on Sunday, Vettel dominated this session again with a time so good that both he and Webber knew it couldn’t be beaten and got out of their respective cars with their rivals still going to out to record their best time.  McLaren and Ferrari did two runs along with Petrov, while Heidfeld and the Mercedes drivers did one flying lap.  For Rosberg, this was plenty – his lap put him up in P3, the fastest man after the Red Bull duo and a full 1.1s quicker than Michael Schumacher, who, in the same equipment could only manage 8th.

The sharp end of the grid looks like this: