Turkish Grand Prix – Istanbul, Qualifying session
Session - Driver - Pos. - Time - Laps - Driver - Pos. - Time
- Laps
Q1 FM 1st 1.27.306 3 MS 2nd 1.27.385 3
Q2 MS 1st 1.25.850 3 FM 4th 1.27.059 3
Q3 FM 1st 1.26.907 11 MS 2nd 1.27.284 11
Chassis: MS 255 FM 252
Temperatures: air 33/32 °C track 45/46 °C
Fifth pole position of the season, after those in Sakhir,
Imola, Indianapolis and Magny-Cours; the first for Felipe
Massa who will thus start a grand prix from the very top of
the grid for the first time in his career. For the fourth
time this season two Ferraris will start from the front row.
This is Ferrari’s 184th pole, the first at this track.
Jean Todt: “A great qualifying for
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro who will occupy the whole front
row of the grid tomorrow afternoon. I am very happy for Felipe
for his first ever pole position. Our package, with the support
of exceptional partners like Bridgestone and Shell once again
showed itself to be very competitive today. Taking into account
the consistency of the performance of the tyres in race trim,
there is every indication we can do well tomorrow. As usual,
to have a clear picture of the situation we need to clear
up the usual unknowns of strategy and how the tyres will react
as the track gets more and more rubber down, without forgetting
crucial factors like reliability. The answers to these questions
will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.”
Felipe Massa: “A fantastic day for
me and to get my first F1 pole is an emotional moment. I can
look back and think how much I have had to fight to achieve
this. I am emotional and happy and hope to get many more poles
in my career. I want to thank the team for having given me
a fantastic car, but thank you also to my father: without
him I would probably not be here in Formula 1. Tomorrow I
will drive my race thinking about mine and the team’s
objectives in both championships. We know we have a great
package while the Bridgestone tyres are consistent and perform
well over a long run.”
Michael Schumacher: “Getting myself
on the front row is definitely not something I can complain
about, but today I definitely did not deliver a great qualifying
performance, failing to get all the potential out of the car.
I aborted my first run on new tyres in Q3 after I ran wide
at Turn 1 and I also made a mistake on my second run when
in any case, I took a slightly more cautious approach to the
lap, knowing I only had one set of tyres left and that it
would be better to be second or third rather than not managing
to do a reasonable time. It’s better to be safe than
sorry. I am very happy for Felipe on getting the first pole
of his career. He drove an exceptional lap and I have to say
I don’t think I could have beaten him, even if I had
not made any mistakes. We can be optimistic about the race
as, from what we have seen so far, everything is in place
for us to do well.”
Ross Brawn: “Naturally I am very happy
with this result. The 248 F1 ran very well, thanks also to
the support of our partners, first and foremost Bridgestone
and Shell. The tyres have proved very consistent over a long
run and that will be an important factor tomorrow. Felipe
did a fantastic job: first he managed to do a great time on
his first run and then he managed to improve on his second
one. As for Michael, he made a mistake on his first lap with
new tyres in Q3 and then tackled the second attempt with a
bit of caution, but still managed to take second place. There
are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the race, but
we know we still have a very difficult task ahead of us.”
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