Red Bull’s Mark Webber scored a third consecutive pole position after fending off a stern challenge from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix. The Australian lapped in a time of 1m26.295s to go over a tenth quicker than Hamilton, while Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel completed the top three almost half a second behind.

Going into Q3, both Red Bull drivers looked set to battle it out for pole position and secure an easy front-row lock-out, with Vettel holding the upper hand by setting the pace in Q1 and Q2, but a brake problem on the German’s car allowed McLaren’s Hamilton through to steal an unlikely second place. Webber never looked threatened at the very front however and will start tomorrow’s race from the front of the grid, keeping Red Bull’s 100% record of 2010 pole positions going.

Vettel managed to hang onto third despite his problems thanks to a time of 1m26.760s, less than half a tenth quicker than Jenson Button in third who had to make do with a 1m26.781s after being forced to abort his final flying lap due to a yellow flag zone. That yellow flag was caused by Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher who spun at turn 8 on his final run, but the German nevertheless secured fifth on the grid thanks to his first time of 1m26.857s.

Schumacher’s team-mate Nico Rosberg continued to play second fiddle to the seven-times champion, lapping a tenth slower to go sixth (1m26.952s). Robert Kubica (1m27.039s), Felipe Massa (1m27.082s), Vitaly Petrov (1m27.430s) and Kamui Kobayashi (1m28.122s) made up the top ten qualifiers.

Force India’s Adrian Sutil failed to get a Q3 berth for the third race in a row, the German lapping in a time of 1m27.525s, but the major surprise of the Q2 session was the eviction of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso from the pole position shoot-out. The Spaniard was unable to find what was needed on Bridgestone’s soft tyres and finished just 12th on a time of 1m27.612s, just four tenths slower than team-mate Massa who finished fifth in that session. Pedro de la Rosa secured 13th on the grid for BMW Sauber (1m27.879s), followed by Sébastien Buemi (1m28.273s), Rubens Barrichello (1m28.392s), Jaime Alguersuari (1m28.540s) and Nico Hülkenberg (1m28.841s).

Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi joined the usual suspects in taking the plunge from qualifying in the first twenty minutes, with the Italian clocking a time of 1m28.958s to drop out at the first hurdle. He was over four tenths off making it into Q2, but still over a second clear of the new teams, led by Lotus’s Jarno Trulli (1m30.237s). He was followed by Heikki Kovalainen (1m30.519s), Timo Glock (1m30.744s), Bruno Senna (1m31.266s), Lucas Di Grassi (1m31.989s) and Karun Chandhok (1m32.060s).

Here are the full results;

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3       
 1.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:27.500  1:26.818  1:26.295
 2.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:27.667  1:27.013  1:26.433
 3.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:27.067  1:26.729  1:26.760
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:27.555  1:27.277  1:26.781
 5.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:27.756  1:27.438  1:26.857
 6.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:27.649  1:27.141  1:26.952
 7.  Kubica         Renault                1:27.766  1:27.426  1:27.039
 8.  Massa          Ferrari                1:27.993  1:27.200  1:27.082
 9.  Petrov         Renault                1:27.620  1:27.387  1:27.430
10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:28.158  1:27.434  1:28.122
11.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:27.951  1:27.525
12.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:27.857  1:27.612
13.  de la Rosa     Sauber-Ferrari         1:28.147  1:27.879
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:28.534  1:28.273
15.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:28.336  1:28.392
16.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:28.460  1:28.540
17.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:28.227  1:28.841
18.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:28.958
19.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:30.237
20.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:30.519
21.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:30.744
22.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:31.266
23.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:31.989
24.  Chandhok       HRT-Cosworth           1:32.060