F1 Quali Turkey

After the thrills and spills of Monaco the F1 circus moves to a totally different circuit in Istanbul Park in Turkey. It's tight, it's twisty and sometimes frustrating when coming to overtaking. The discussions about Michael's overtake at the last corner has caused a lot of controversy and it appears there was a Green flag telling Michael he could overtake but at least now the rules are clear for all which is a result.

There is much talk of who is to partner Fernando for 2011 and there are three drivers in the fray as the silly season starts. Mark (Webber), Felipe (Massa) and Robert (Kubica) are now rumoured to be in the fight for what must be the most iconic driver on the F1 grid.

After the problem of the blanket left in the air duct on Jenson's car has caused a complete rethink of the procedures prior to the race. The blanket left in the air duct caused the engine to overheat on his way to the grid and the engine was actually destroyed prior to the start of the race.

Today is the 800th race for Ferrari and what a history they have in the sport. The Mclaren F Duct, which appears to be huge benefit to Mclaren is still causing the other teams to catch up and Force India are the latest team to adopt it. The lap record here has stood since 2005 in a 1.24 set by Montoya, a name which seems history now and a 1.27 seems to be the pole target in 2010.

The Red Bull's and Mclaren's are both quick here which hopefully will create a good fight at the head of the field. So here we go into quali and it could be very interesting as the drivers all love it here. The track temp at 39 degrees and the changing wind direction will make it a challenge for all the drivers.

Both Mclaren's set the early pace in the 1.27's but the Red Bull's hadn't set a time at that point. Half way through the session there were 23 cars on circuit and then came the Mark & Sebastian who blitzed their way to one and two and once again who can catch them.

After Quali 1 out went Vitantonio, Jarno, Heikki, Timo, Bruno, Karun and Lucas which seems to be the set standard for the season so far.

All the cars were running on hard tyres through quali one and two and they will no doubt switch to the softer compound for the pole shoot out. As usual it was Red Bull and Mclaren in the top four followed by both Renault's with Vitaly ahead of Robert with 5 minutes to go. Both Ferrari's are not shining yet as well as Nico (R) and still out of the top ten albeit they will come.

Then came a shock as Fernando went out in Q2 which is surprising. Michael seems to becoming more as one with the Mercedes and maybe we all expected too much after his three year out of the sport. So we lost Adrian, Fernando, Pedro, Sebastian (B), Rubens, Jamie and Nico (H).

So the launch for pole started and this will be interesting as the Mclaren's are apparently getting closer to the Red Bull's. Turkey is the first of the four anti clockwise circuits on the calendar and pole appears to be in the mid 1.26's.

Lewis set the early pace but Mark once again put his Red Bull into P1 followed by Lewis, Sebastian and Jenson. Lewis is really throwing the Mclaren around the circuit and turn eight is exhilarating to watch with most on full throttle. It seems incredible to think the soft tyres are struggling to cover one lap at full speed.

So the grid looks like this, Mark, Lewis, Sebastian, Jenson, Michael, Nico (R), Robert, Felipe, Vitaly and Kamui. The Mclarens are getting closer and at least have split the Red Bull's. The Mclaren's speed down the straights may just give them a chance in the race.

So Mark does it again and he really is on a high after is last two wins.