Australian Mark Webber completed a hat-trick of pole positions on Saturday when he clocked the fastest time for Red Bull in qualifying for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old championship leader — who leads team-mate Sebastian Vettel by virtue of races won as they are level on points — has now claimed four poles this season and five in his career and the Red Bull team have taken all seven this year.
Vettel, 22, qualified third behind 2008 champion Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren who therefore split the pace-setters and claimed a front row start for the first time this year.
Hamilton’s McLaren teammate defending champion and fellow-Briton Jenson Button was fourth ahead of German comeback kid Michael Schumacher, 41, of Mercedes.
His Mercedes teammate and fellow-German Nico Rosberg was sixth ahead of Pole Robert Kubica of Renault with Brazilian Felipe Massa eighth for Ferrari. His teammate Spaniard Fernando Alonso was only down in 12th.
Kubica’s Renault teammate Russian Vitaly Petrov was ninth and Japanese Kamui Kobayashi 10th for Sauber.
Q3 eludes Force India, Chandhok to start last
Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil will start 11th on the grid, seven places ahead of teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, as none of the Force India drivers could make it to the third qualifying session (Q3).
Hispania driver Karun Chandhok will be last on the 24-driver grid, behind Virgin’s Lucas di Grassi.
Force India’s day began with a hydraulic problem confining Sutil’s participation in the third practice session to just one lap but the German did come out for the qualifying session.
Chandhok, on his part, felt wrong tyre choice marred his outing. — Agencies
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