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.

Turkey Preview: Force India

The Turkish Grand Prix, held at the Istanbul Park circuit from 5 – 7 June, will be the seventh event on the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar.

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

Vettel grabs pole in Turkish Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole for tomorrow's Turkish Grand Prix to deny Jenson Button a hat-trick of starts from top spot on the grid.

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

British GP Preview: BMW

Munich/Hinwil, 12thJune 2009. Spurred on by the World Championship points collected in Turkey, the BMW Sauber F1 Team is working tirelessly on further improvements to the F1.09.