Formula 1 News

Turkish Grand Prix Qualifiers: Felipe Massa beats Hamilton to Pole Position 

Brazilian Ferrari driver Felipe Massa beat Lewis Hamilton to pole position for tomorrows’ Turkish Grand Prix; Felipe repeated his 2006 Istanbul result. Kimi Raikkonen, Massa’s Ferrari teammate , and McLaren’s Fernando Alonso will share the second row.

Going into the final runs of Q3, Massa, Raikkonen and Alonso were covered by just 0.054 seconds, with Hamilton four tenths adrift after a lacklustre first flying lap. But Hamilton found six tenths of a second on his last attempt, lapping in 1’27”373 and going straight to provisional pole. He stayed there for mere moments however, as Massa beat him by 0.044 seconds with his own last lap. An error in the final complex meant Raikkonen failed to improve and remained third. Fernando Alonso took the unusual decision to return to the harder compound tyres for his last qualifying run, but could not match his soft tyre time and dropped to fourth.

The BMWs occupied their usual “best of the rest” position for most of qualifying and will start from row three. Robert Kubica beat Nick Heidfeld by three tenths in Q3 after they had set absolutely identical times in Q2.

Heikki Kovalainen took seventh for Renault, with Nico Rosberg continuing his strong practice form to take eighth for Williams.

Compatriots Jarno Trulli and Giancarlo Fisichella will share row five.

Anthony Davidson came close to giving Super Aguri their second ever top ten start as he leapt to eighth in the closing moments of Q2. But improvements by Fisichella, Rosberg and Trulli saw the Briton edged back down to 11th – 0.022 seconds from reaching Q3, and still equal to his career-best start. His teammate Takuma Sato could only manage 19th.

Red Bull had an underwhelming qualifying session, with Mark Webber needing a couple of attempts to break out of Q1, and then only managing 12th on the grid, one place ahead of teammate David Coulthard.

The Hondas took 14th and 15th, Rubens Barrichello ahead, while Williams’ Alex Wurz’s qualifying struggles resumed as he found himself 16th following an error at Turn 10 on his first run and a poor second flying lap.

Ralf Schumacher also reverted to the disappointing qualifying form that had marred the first half of his season, with errors and set-up issues leaving him 18th on the grid, behind Toro Rosso’s Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Italian outpaced new teammate Sebastian Vettel by 0.6 seconds, as the German rookie took 20th.

As usual, the Spykers were slowest of all. Adrian Sutil beat Sakon Yamamoto by 1.1 seconds after the Japanese driver had a spin at the chicane.

Turkish GP Final Qualifier Standings:

1. F. Massa (Ferrari) 1’27”329
2. L. Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) 1’27”373
3. K. Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1’27”546
4. F. Alonso (McLaren Mercedes) 1’27”574
5. R. Kubica (BMW Sauber) 1’27”722
6. N. Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) 1’28”037
7. H. Kovalainen (Renault) 1’28”491
8. N. Rosberg (Williams) 1’28”507
9. J. Trulli (Toyota) 1’28”740
10. G. Fisichella (Renault) 1’29”322