Qualifying Turkey

Felipe Massa has claimed pole position for Sunday’s 58-lap Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park. Strong throughout the weekend, the final run of the final qualifying session saw the Brazilian move to the head of the timesheets with a best lap of 1:27.617s and record his 11th career pole.

Heikki Kovalainen starts second in his McLaren Mercedes just ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. The McLaren duo ran differing tyre strategies with Kovalainen following the traditional route of using the softer Bridgestone option tyre for his final two runs, while Hamilton stayed on the harder prime tyre. Kovalainen was a tenth clear of his team-mate and just under two-tenths shy of Massa’s best.

Championship leader Kimi Raikkonen starts fourth in the second Ferrari but the F2008 package remains the one to beat on Sunday afternoon.

A solid run from Robert Kubica saw him qualify in fifth position with BMW Sauber team-mate having a less successful run to ninth position on the grid. It has been a good day for the Red Bull Renault team with Mark Webber doing his usual good job in qualifying to start in sixth position while for the first time in three Grand Prix, David Coulthard joins his team-mate in the top ten.

Fernando Alonso was unable to replicate his Barcelona qualifying form in his Renault, but starts a respectable seventh while team-mate Nelson Piquet struggled and was eliminated in the first round of qualifying and starts a disappointing 17th.

Jarno Trulli continues to lead the way in the Toyota camp as he lines up in eighth position with Timo Glock back in 15th. Nico Rosberg was unable to make the top ten pole shoot out and starts 11th in his Williams Toyota behind Heidfeld and Coulthard.

Rubens Barrichello starts his record breaking 257th Grand Prix from 12th position on the grid, just ahead of Honda team-mate Jenson Button while Sebastian Vettel had a good run to 14th in his Toro Rosso Ferrari.

Towards the back of the field Kazuki Nakajima had a spin on his first run in his Williams and went on to qualify 16th ahead of Piquet while Sebastien Bourdais abandoned his first qualifying run but would then post the 18th best time in the second Toro Rosso.

With Super Aguri Honda no longer in operation, Force India Ferrari takes the final row of the grid. Giancarlo Fisichella was 19th fastest, half a second clear of Adrian Sutil, but a grid position penalty for his Friday practice infraction moves the Italian behind his team-mate.

Felipe Massa claims ‘he owns’ Istanbul Park based on his recent record at the circuit, and looking at today’s performance, it is hard to refute...

Earl ALEXANDER
© CAPSIS International