Felipe Massa stormed to pole while Heikki Kovalainen made an impressive return following his accident in Spain.
Felipe Massa once again demonstrated his incredible speed around the Istanbul Park circuit to claim pole position for tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Brazilian will be hoping that taking pole is the first step towards renewing his title challenge.
Massa and his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen had shared fastest times in Friday’s two practice sessions. In Saturday practice session Red Bull’s Mark Webber was surprisingly quickest. In qualifying he demonstrated that the team have found some real improvements, taking sixth on the grid. His team-mate David Coulthard also had a good session, ending up tenth. It is the first time this season that both Red Bull’s have made it through to the final qualifying session.
Raikkonen will be disappointed to be starting fourth, after being quickest in the second session. In front of him are the McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen. Hamilton surprisingly stayed on hard compound tyres for both of his final runs but could not match his team-mate.
Robert Kubica will start fifth for BMW Sauber with his team-mate Nick Heidfeld in ninth. Kubica showed good speed in the second session, slower only than Raikkonen, but could not replicate it in the last session.
Fernando Alonso qualified well inside the top ten in seventh but his Renault partner Nelson Piquet struggled again. The Brazilian could only manage 17th after having a spin. It was not a great day for the rookies, with Kazuki Nakajima also spinning in his Williams and Toyota’s Timo Glock failing to make it through to the final session. His team-mate Jarno Trulli did rather better and will start from eighth.
Both Honda drivers struggled for pace and Rubens Barrichello will start his record-breaking 257th Grand Prix from 12th position, one place ahead of team-mate Jenson Button. Nico Rosberg also struggled in the Williams, just missing the cut in 11th for the final session. Sebastian Vettel put in a strong performance to qualify the old Toro Rosso in 14th, four places ahead of his team-mate Sebastien Bourdais. The final row of the grid is made up of the two Force India’s, with Adrian Sutil ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella. The latter incurred a three place penalty for leaving the pit-lane while the red light was on.
The race itself looks like being a close fought affair, with the McLaren’s sandwiched by the two Ferrari’s. The favourite has to be Massa, who has won in Turkey for the past two years. A victory would be of great use to him as he fights to keep in touch in the Driver’s Championship.
2008 Turkish GP Grid
- Massa (Ferrari)
- Kovalainen (McLaren)
- Hamilton (McLaren)
- Raikkonen (Ferrari)
- Kubica (BMW Sauber)
- Webber (Red Bull)
- Alonso (Renault)
- Trulli (Toyota)
- Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)
- Coulthard (Red Bull)
- Rosberg (Williams)
- Barrichello (Honda)
- Button (Honda)
- Vettel (Toro Rosso)
- Glock (Toyota)
- Nakajima (Williams)
- Piquet (Renault)
- Bourdais (Toro Rosso)
- Sutil (Force India)
- Fisichella* (Force India)
* = three place grid penalty
