It’s fair to say that Scuderia Ferrari was hoping to do a bit better than the third and fourth rows of the grid, given the encouraging performance in Monaco a fortnight ago. But, racing is about dealing with the cards you are dealt and so, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa still plan to aim for a good number of points tomorrow, even starting from sixth and seventh on the grid respectively. As has often been the case for the car, the main problem this afternoon was getting the most out of the tyres over one timed lap.

Sebastian Vettel took his second pole of the season, for Red Bull-Renault, securing the top spot in the closing moments of Q3, after it looked as though championship leader Jenson Button had pulled off another last minute top slot in the Brawn. These two teams monopolised the front two rows, as Rubens Barrichello took third place with Mark Webber fourth. Sharing the third row with Kimi is the fifth placed Toyota of Jarno Trulli, while Felipe shares Row 4 with Fernando Alonso in the Renault.

Strategy will be one of the key elements in tomorrow’s seventh round of the world championship, on a track where two refuelling stops is the normal pattern, although three can sometimes be used, given the short length of the pit lane, the high pit lane speed limit and the fact that its entry cuts out the last corner on the track. Given the high temperatures, the cars will be subjected to extreme conditions. These can also affect the drivers, as the many high speed and long corners, put a strain on the drivers’ neck muscles. This is further aggravated by the fact that the majority of corners are left handed, which is not a common feature on the F1 calendar.

On Friday night, Kimi and Felipe attended an event held against a spectacular backdrop of the Bosphorus, when around 500 guests were invited by the Turkish Ferrari importer to the Les Ottomans Hotel. The two drivers took part in a Question and Answer session, having arrived by helicopter and then boat to get there in time from the race track after their technical briefing sessions.

“This was a reasonable qualifying, even if it did not quite come up to our expectations,” commented Stefano Domenicali. “From what we saw over the course of the day, we can say that we did not get the maximum out of the potential available to us, especially in Q3. Having said that, we can expect a very tough and open race: we have a good strategy and we will try to exploit that to pick up a good result.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “In qualifying the car was better balanced than in free practice but, even on a light fuel load, today we were a bit slower than the best. All weekend we have struggled a bit to get the tyres working at their best on the first lap. For sure, starting from the dirty side of the grid won’t be easy, especially on a track like this, which is hardly ever used for racing, which means the track surface offers little grip off the racing line. We have made progress recently, but the others have also done the same, which is what always happens.”

Felipe Massa: “On low fuel, the car was well balanced and had good grip, while once we had the race fuel on board, the situation got worse and we suffered oversteer, mainly on the softer tyre. Honestly, I’d expected to start higher up the grid, especially as we were pretty competitive in Q1 and Q2. Starting from seventh, it becomes tough to aim for the top, so we have to be realistic. However, we mustn’t forget this will be a long race and anything can happen. As usual, I will give it my best shot.”

Chris Dyer: “It was a very close qualifying, especially at the top end of the time sheet. The cars ran trouble free all day: the major difficulty concerned tyre choice. In the end, we opted for the softer compound and all in all, we believe that was the right choice, even if the difference in performance between the two over the first timed lap was not as marked as on other occasions.”

Qualifying session

F. Massa: 7th 1.28.858 7 Laps
K. Raikkonen: 6th 1.28.815 7 Laps
Chassis: F. Massa 276, K. Raikkonen 279
Weather: air temperature 28 °C, track temperature 45/44 °C, sunny.