World champion Sebastian Vettel maintained his 100 per cent qualifying record for the season on Saturday as he secured pole for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.
The German, who leads this year’s standings, will start Sunday’s race alongside team-mate Mark Webber, who posted the second-fastest time.
Vettel, who crashed during the early free practise on Friday and could not compete in the afternoon session, had a time of 1 minute 25.049 seconds for the 5.338 kilometres-long Istanbul Park lap, beating the Australian Webber by 0.405 seconds.
Nico Rosberg gave some hope to Mercedes, as he pushed out the more fancied McLarens for third place on the grid. He will start alongside Lewis Hamilton, who won the last race in China.
Former world champion Fernando Alonso managed a surprising fifth place for Ferrari ahead of Jenson Button in the second McLaren.
The top ten starting places were completed by Vitali Petrov in a Renault and Michael Schumacher in a Mercedes, who were seventh and eighth-fastest, while Nick Heidfeld in a Renault and Felipe Massa in a Ferrari will start from the fifth row on the grid.
Vettel leads the standings with 68 points from Hamilton, who has 47. Button is third on 38, while Webber is on 37 points.
