2009 Turkish Grand Prix: Vettel at The Last

(Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Sebastien Vettel topped all three qualifying sessions to record his second pole of the season with a time of 1m28.316.

The Red Bull star repeated Jenson Button's feat of the past two races by being the last driver to cross the line in the final session and take pole with the lap, resulting in another dramatic conclusion.

After a difficult start to the weekend, the young German was delighted to take the pole position, the only position anyone has won the Turkish Grand Prix from since its inclusion on the calendar in 2005.

"The last couple of races have not gone our way but finally we are ahead of the white-car guys!"

Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello looked to have secured the front row for Brawn GP with another impressive late showing, but will have to settle for second and third. Ross Brawn is mildly confident about his team's strategy though,

"Obviously we would've liked pole position, but it will be interesting to see what the fuel loads are. If early season form is anything to go by, the Red Bulls are lighter than we are but we will have to see. We're on lap 17—if Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are longer than that they have a strategic advantage, if not we do."

Second Red Bull driver Mark Webber lines up fourth just ahead of Jarno Trulli in fifth, who showed the early season pace of the Toyota again after starting 19th in Monaco two weeks ago.

The Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa continue to race on the verge of the championship pace setters with sixth and seventh, the only two men to have previously taken pole in Istanbul.

Only one second covered the top ten with fuel loads included in a very close session, Q3 being rounded out by Fernando Alonso, Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica.

Mclaren have still not found a solution to their problems, with Heikki Kovalainen fairing better than team-mate Lewis Hamilton to take fourteenth, with the World Champion failing to make it out of session one in a lowly 16th, "it looked great yesterday, i don't know where everybody else found the time."

Nelson Piquet went off twice during the first part of qualifying, finally ending the session in the gravel trap to leave his position with Renault in serious doubt.

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