Sebastian Vettel stormed to his second successive pole position after dominating qualifying in Silverstone this afternoon. The German, who had topped both practice sessions yesterday, showed his hand in Q2 by going quickest, before eclipsing the field by over a third of a second in the decisive Q3 session, crossing the line just ten seconds after Rubens Barrichello to demote the Brazilian to second on the grid.
Jenson Button secured his sixth win from seven races today in Turkey to extend his championship lead to 26 points over team-mate Rubens Barrichello who failed to finish after a dramatic day. With title rival Sebastian Vettel finishing in third position, Button surely now is in a commanding position as he aims for the championship with Brawn Mercedes.
Vettel’s one error came on that first lap as he ran wide through turn nine and with his momentum lost, Button breezed by to take the lead exiting turn ten, one he would never relinquish.
Qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix saw Sebastian Vettel claim the pole position for the Red Bull Renault team ahead of the dominant Brawn Mercedes duo of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. Behind there were a few surprises such as McLaren struggling more than expected and BMW Sauber picking up the pace with the new aero package.
Jenson Button once again got pole position this season at Monaco Grand Prix. Despite his struggle in early stages of Qualify today he did an exceptional lap at dying moments of Q3 and secured pole position. Raikkonen was second just 0.025 seconds behind Button despite he was the fastest man in Q2 with almost six tenths quicker than last years best Q2 time. Barrichello from Brawn was third ahead of Vettel in fourth who didn’t seem to be on pace this week. Massa was fifth who crashed his car at the beginning of Q1 but was lucky enough to continue. Rosberg was sixth, Kovalainen seventh and Webber was eight before tomorrow’s race.
The real drama was Hamilton’s crash at first session after posting the best first sector time. Hamilton seemed very strong all week here and he could deliver a very strong performance today if he didn’t crash. Another big surprise was seeing both cars of teams BMW and Toyota to be knocked out in Q1 while Force India and Torro Rosso drivers were in top 15. Car weights are yet to be published by FIA, but most of the time strategy is more important at this circuit than the raw speed.
Jenson Button wins Spanish Grand Prix as this is his fourth victory of this season. Despite he has been passed by Barrichello at the start, Brawn changed him to a two stop strategy while Rubens was on a three stop. Barrichello finished second ahead of Webber who has made best use of softer tyre in his second long stint. He is followed by team mate Vettel. Vettel’s race passed at the rear of Massa thankls to a good start with use of KERS.
Due to a fuel rig problem at Mass’s last pit stop, Massa was forced to conserve fuel and drop two places during the closing laps. Alonso passed Massa at last lap while he was 16 seconds behind him until Massa started to slow down. Alonso finished fifth. Massa finished sixth just 1.6 seconds in front of Heidfeld. The last point scorer was Rosberg ashe finished eight.