2011 Turkish Grand Prix - Qualifying

Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel regained their number one status by taking pole at the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix. Vettel beat his teammate by 0.4 seconds, with Nico Rosberg taking a great third, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Q1 started with drama, as Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi was the first car out. However, while coming around the last series of corners, the Japanese driver's car died, and he tried to crawl into the pits using seventh gear. It was revealed that he had a fuel pump problem, which lead to him falling out of qualifying. He will start in 23rd place, due to Jerome D'Ambrosio having a five place penalty after an incident on FP3.

Q2 had slightly less drama, with the tension increasing into the last moments as drivers tried to squeeze into Q3. The top drivers had to use the softer tyres to get through, meaning it was even tighter for the smaller teams. Nick Heidfeld was the luckiest, he was the last driver to cross the line, put together with a time to push him into the next round, and stop Rubens Barrichello from progressing.

Q3 started off with only five cars going out immediately. Vettel easily stole the show, taking first by 0.4 seconds from Mark Webber. As the five drivers made their way into the pits for new tyres, the main decision to be made was from Red Bull. With such a big advantage ahead of their rivals, they decided to not go out again, a very brave decision from the top team. However, as the other drivers and teams tried to gain ground, the Red Bulls were never toppled, taking a one-two into the Turkish Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg was the best of the rest, pushing his Mercedes into a very impressive third, ahead of the disappointed Ferrari and McLaren drivers.

The Grid For Tomorrow's Race
Pos - Driver - Team - Rank
1 - Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull - 1
2 - Mark Webber - Red Bull - 3
3 - Nico Rosberg - Mercedes - 10
4 - Lewis Hamilton - McLaren - 2
5 - Fernando Alonso - Ferrari - 4
6 - Jenson Button - McLaren - 5
7 - Vitaly Petrov - Renault - 20
8 - Michael Schumacher - Mercedes - 17
9 - Nick Heidfeld - Renault - 12
10 - Felipe Massa - Ferrari - 6
11 - Rubens Barrichello - Williams - 8
12 - Adrian Sutil - Force India - 15
13 - Paul Di Resta - Force India - 31
14 - Pastor Maldonado - Williams - New
15 - Sergio Perez - Sauber - N
16 - Sebastian Buemi - Toro Rosso - 16
17 - Jaime Alguersuari - Toro Rosso - 21
18 - Heikki Kovalainen - Lotus - 11
19 - Jarno Trulli - Lotus - 13
20 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - HRT - 26
21 - Timo Glock - Virgin - 14
22 - Narain Karthikeyan - HRT - N
23 - Kamui Kobayashi - Sauber - 23
24 - Jerome D'Ambrosio - Virgin - 35