Last-gasp pole for Vettel in Istanbul (Lead)

ISTANBUL - German Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel Saturday clinched a last-gasp pole position for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix as he posted the fastest-time in qualifying.

Championship leader Jenson Button seemed on course for yet another pole as he finished his qualifying session with a best time of 1:28.421 minutes on the 5.338 kilometre-long Istanbul Park course.

Vettel though, who finished his lap after the official time of ten minutes for the final qualifying session had already finished, managed to beat the Brawn GP driver’s time by 0.105 seconds.

“Finally we’ve got it,” Vettel screamed into the team radio after the lap.

Starting on the second row of the grid will be the BrawnGP of Rubens Barrichello and the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

Jarno Trulli in a Toyota and Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari had the fifth and sixth-fastest time respectively, while the Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso’s Renault will start from the fourth row on the grid.

The top ten from the qualifying are completed by Nico Rosberg in a Williams and the BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica.

Once again there was disappointment for world champion Lewis Hamilton, who went out in the first round of qualifying after posting the 16th-fastest time, while his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was only a bit better in 14th.

Ahead of the seventh race of the season, Button leads the standings with 51 points after winning five of the opening six season-races. Barrichello is 16 points behind on 35, while Vettel is third with 23 points.