Vettel pips Button to Turkish GP pole

• Sebastian Vettel beats Jenson Button on final lap in Istanbul• Lewis Hamilton suffers oversteer and finishes a lowly 16thRed Bull's Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position for the Turkish grand Prix ahead of Brawn GP's Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello in this afternoon's qualifying session at Istanbul Park.The 21-year-old German driver left it until the final lap to post his fastest time of 1min 28.316secs and denied Button a hat-trick of starts from the front of the grid.It is the third pole of the 21-year-old German's career, with both his victories to date coming from the front of the grid, in Italy last year and China this season."It's quite a surprise to be quickest in all three sessions, but finally we have made it and we are ahead of the white cars," said Vettel. "It's been quite an effort by the team because we had some parts arrive late, but they've fixed them on and we've made it."The 2008 champion, Lewis Hamilton, had another afternoon to forget as he continued to struggle with his car which former constructor Eddie Jordan described as "simply hopeless, possibly the worst McLaren have ever designed".Hamilton struggled with his steering at corner eight and spun out of qualifying on the first round. He will start tomorrow's grand prix facing an uphill battle from 16th on the grid."Welcome to my world," said Hamilton in a rare display of gallows humour. "It's the car. It has got slower and slower throughout the weekend as the track has got hotter. It looked great yesterday, but this morning it didn't look fantastic."I don't think we should rush anything. It's better we take our time to refine it. It's not like we can claw back 60 points [in the championship]."Vettel's Red Bull team-mate, Mark Webber, will start the race fourth on the grid, ahead of Toyota's Jarno Trulli and the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa.Leading grid positions after qualifying1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 28.316secs, 2 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 1:28.421, 3 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 1:28.579, 4 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:28.613, 5 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:28.666, 6 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:28.815, 7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:28.858, 8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:29.075, 9 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:29.191, 10 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:29.357, 11 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:27.521, 12 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 1:27.629, 13 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:27.795, 14 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 1:28.207, 15 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:28.391, 16 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:28.318, 17 Nelson Piquet Jr (Bra) Renault 1:28.582, 18 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.708, 19 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 1:28.717, 20 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:28.918Formula oneMotor sportLewis HamiltonMcLarenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Button wins Turkish grand prix

• Sixth win in seven races for Brawn driver• Webber and Vettel finish second and thirdJenson Button continued his domination of the current Formula One season with his sixth victory in seven races to move a step closer to clinching his maiden world championship.A mistake from Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello off the line and an error from pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull on the opening lap allowed Button to cruise to the line in the Turkish Grand Prix.It was his fourth consecutive success, the first time that has been achieved by a Briton since Nigel Mansell went on to take the title in 1992.Button now has a 26-point cushion over Barrichello at the top of the standings as the Brazilian retired on lap 49, with Vettel 32 points adrift as he finished third behind team-mate Mark Webber.After crossing the line, Button was told over the pit-to-car radio he had produced an "awesome drive," to which he replied: "Thank you. You've built me a monster of a car. You guys are absolute legends."Only five times in Formula One's 60-year history had any driver won six out of the first seven races: Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark and Michael Schumacher (twice).Button could not have asked for it to be any easier, either, thanks to Barrichello initially as he stalled from his third place on the grid, relegating him down to 13th by the end of the first lap.Vettel, whose two previous victories had come from pole, ran wide onto a painted kerb coming out of turn nine.That forced him into running onto the grass approaching turn 10, which was all the invitation Button needed to take the lead, and ultimately the victory.Not even switching Vettel to a three-stop strategy then worked for although he ran behind Button's exhaust at the midway point of the race, his failure to pass the championship leader also cost him.It was not even good enough for the runner-up spot as Webber did enough in his stints to take the line just 0.7secs clear of the 21-year-old.Toyota's Jarno Trulli finished fourth, followed by Nico Rosberg in his Williams, matching his best performance of the season.Winner of this race from pole for the last three years in Felipe Massa in his Ferrari was sixth, with BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica finally ending his points duck with seventh.The second Toyota of Timo Glock completed the top eight, with Lewis Hamilton 13th in his pitiful McLaren, finishing 80.4 seconds adrift of runaway winner and championship leader Button.As for the constructors, Brawn's first failure of the season means Red Bull have closed the gap by four points to 39.5.In the build-up immediately before the race at Istanbul's Otodrom, there had been wild rumours the FOTA eight would boycott it at the end of the formation lap.It had been suggested as a protest to their ongoing feud with the FIA over the budget cap, but as expected it failed to materialise – thankfully so for Button, who marches on.Final positions1 Jenson Button (Brawn)2 Mark Webber (Red Bull) +6.7143 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) +7.4614 Jarno Trulli (Toyota) +27.8435 Nico Rosberg (Williams) +31.5396 Felipe Massa (Ferrari) +39.9967 Robert Kubica (BMW) +46.2478 Timo Glock (Toyota) +46.959Jenson ButtonBrawnLewis HamiltonForce IndiaRed BullMcLarenSauberRenaultToro RossoToyotaWilliamsMotor sportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

F1 Leader Button Wins Turkish GP for 6th Victory

Brawn GP's Jenson Button wins Turkish Grand Prix for 6th victory in 7 F1 races this season

Jenson Button on Monaco pole

• British driver pips Kimi Raikkonen into second position• World champion Hamilton to start 16th after sliding offJenson Button put himself in the perfect position from which to win his fifth race of the season when he took pole position for tomorrow's Monaco grand prix with a last-minute lap of 1min 14.902 sec during today's final qualifying session.Next to his Brawn-Mercedes on the front row will be the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen, with the second Brawn of Rubens Barrichello and the Red Bull-Renault of Sebastian Vettel behind them. Felipe Massa's Ferrari and Nico Rosberg are on the third row, ahead of Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren-Mercedes and Mark Webber's Red Bull.Of the 55 editions of the race held since the second world war, 22 have been won by the driver starting from pole position. The forecast is for fine weather in the principality tomorrow, reducing the risk of the sort of chaos that can produce a surprise result on this tight street circuit.Button's challengers are unlikely to include Lewis Hamilton, who found his way past an all-Ferrari front row to win his first Monaco GP with a brilliant display last year but crashed out of today's first session. He had just clocked the fastest first-sector time when he lost control under heavy braking for the sharp right-hander at Mirabeau, sliding wide and clouting the barrier with his left rear wheel.The red flag came out to call a temporary halt to the session while marshals removed the McLaren-Mercedes and Hamilton walked back to the pits, resigned to a place on the eighth row of the grid for tomorrow's race. To compound his frustration, the car had been looking like a candidate for its best result of the season on a circuit where its mechanical grip is not compromised by its aerodynamic deficiencies.Others who failed to make it past the first session included the entire BMW and Toyota teams, with Nick Heifeld and Robert Kubica an ignominious 17th and 18th in the German cars and Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock an even worse 19th and 20th for the Japanese manufacturer.Trulli, normally an outstanding performer in qualifying and a winner of this race from pole position five years ago, claimed to have been baulked by a Renault. For the BMWs, however, there was no excuse. Those who were watching the morning's untimed session out by the entry to the swimming pool complex could not fail to notice how twitchy the white cars looked as they changed direction through the fast left-right flick, a place in which the Brawns looked almost unnaturally stable."It's not going to be easy," Button said afterwards, looking forward to starting as favourite to win for the first time in the place where he has lived for the past eight years. "But it's a great feeling to be on pole here."Formula oneJenson ButtonLewis HamiltonMotor sportMcLarenBrawnFerrariguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Turkish GP Review: Brawn GP

Brawn GP’s Jenson Button dominated the Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park Circuit today, taking the lead on the first lap and driving a superb race to bring his Brawn-Mercedes car home for his sixth victory of the 2009 Formula One season.

Formula One preview: Turkish Grand Prix

From the beautiful seaside and multi-million dollar yachts of Monaco, Formula One returns to a more conventional venue for Round 7 of the championship.