2009 Turkish Grand Prix Race day at Istanbul Park

The drivers are vigorously weaving around to generate heat in the harder tyre. Vettel turns onto the pit straight and heads towards the grid.

The field stream down the hill towards the final sector of the circuit. Vettel begins to slow and bring the pack a little closer together.

Vettel brings the field through the rollercoaster thrill of Turn 8 at a sedate pace. They certainly won't be enjoying it at this speed in a couple of minutes.

The formation lap begins at Istanbul Park. All 20 drivers leave the grid without problem.

The harder tyre is the choice of the leading runners for the start.

The engines begin to fire with a minute to go before the formation lap.

On the grid, the mechanics now have everything in place, and are marking time until the last minute when the tyre covers will come off and the engines are started.

Helmut Marko gives Sebastian Vettel a last good luck handshake as the grid continues to clear.

The safety car roars around the circuit as Bernd Maylander makes his way to his position, ready for the start.

All the cars are formed up on the grid, with no penalties or pitlane starters today.

There are five minutes to go until Sebastian Vettel leads the field away for the formation lap at Istanbul Park.

Mark Webber pulls on his balaclava and speaks to Red Bull team advisor Dr. Helmut Marko, as championship leader Jenson Button climbs aboard the Brawn BGP 001.

Lewis Hamilton climbs aboard the McLaren. He faces a long afternoon from a disappointing 16th on the grid.

The ING girls begin to clear the grid with their number boards, leaving more and more space as the drivers continue to suit up and move towards their cars.

Fernando Alonso moves towards his Renault in eighth on the grid. He is expected to be the first man in the pits this afternoon with a short first stint.

Force India team boss Vijay Mallya wanders into the pitlane, having seen both his drivers on the grid as they prepare for the race.

'İstiklâl Marşı', the Turkish national anthem, rings out over the circuit's public address system, as we move within 15 minutes of the race.

The pits are now closed with 15 minutes to go before the formation lap.

Red Bull chiefs are in discussion all over the place. Christian Horner has walked the other way down the grid and is in conversation with Renault boss Flavio Briatore.

There are high chances that the chat centres around the continuing FOTA situation and the team entries for the 2010 Formula 1 season.

Red Bull designer Adrian Newey surveys the grid and is taking a look at the rear end of Trulli's Toyota.

Amazingly enough, the air temperature has reached the predicted maximum of 32 Celsius, and right now the track temp is 50 degrees.

Keeping tyres in a good condition will be the key factor in this race.

Kimi Raikkonen climbs out of his Ferrari from the sixth-place grid slot.

Sebastian Vettel has arrived in his pole position starting slot. The RB5 is jacked up and the mechanics swarm around the machine as the man himself climbs out and begins to cool down.

Brawn pair Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello pull up at the back of the grid, and both are pushed through towards the front by the mechanics.

Giancarlo Fisichella tours round Istanbul Park on his way to the grid in the Force India. Unlucky not to score a point last time out at Monaco, the Italian will be looking for another strong performance this time round.

Sebastian Vettel rolls out of the Red Bull garage with hard tyres bolted on, and he too joins the racetrack.

Heikki Kovalainen leaves the McLaren garage and makes his way onto the circuit.

The pits are now open for the cars to make their way around to the grid.

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The pitlane will open in ten minutes, releasing the cars for a reconnaissance lap to the grid.

Championship leader Jenson Button will start from the dirty side of the track on the front row of the grid today. In years past when the build-up to the race featured a warm-up session, the concerned drivers who would be starting on the dirty side would spend time running down that side of the straight to clean up the line for a good getaway at the start.

None of that these days of course, and Button will have to do what he can to get his Brawn Mercedes off the line in just under 45 minutes' time.

The softer tyre could be used by some drivers to get an advantage off the grid, but it may not last long in the opening stint and most are likely to leave the soft rubber in the garage until the final stop.

Further down the field, Adrian Sutil and Heikki Kovalainen will be two drivers to watch. They are lighter than those around them, with most of the final ten drivers going for a very long first stint this afternoon.

Kovalainen, with the help of KERS and a late first of two stops, should progress quickly in the early stages. Sutil will also need to do some overtaking in the first few laps of the race to make his strategy work.

At the back, Sebastien Bourdais is once again the heaviest car, and will be repeating his effective Monaco strategy, which earned him a point. Look for the Frenchman to be stopping possibly as late as lap 35.

Fuel

The fuel weights show Sebastian Vettel snatched pole with a slightly lighter car than Jenson Button. The Red Bull is due to pit a couple of laps earlier than the Brawn, which gives Button a window of opportunity at both the first and second stops.

Providing the grid positions hold through the tricky first complex of corners, Jenson can look to set quick times in the laps after Vettel stops to take on a heavy fuel load for the middle stint. The Brawn team can also observe Vettel's stop and react by fueling Button with a chance to take advantage at the second stop.

Button's ability to preserve tyre life on his car may be the factor that sets up a fascinating strategic battle this afternoon.

Behind the front row pair, there is a similar set of strategies, with Fernando Alonso again in a light Renault from eighth on the grid.

The following shows the weight of each car, fuelled for the first stint of today's grand prix: Pos Driver Team Weight (kg) 1. Sebastian Vettel RBR Renault 649.5 2. Jenson Button Brawn Mercedes 655.5 3. Rubens Barrichello Brawn Mercedes 652.5 4. Mark Webber RBR Renault 656.0 5. Jarno Trulli Toyota 652.0 6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 658.0 7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 654.0 8. Fernando Alonso Renault 644.5 9. Nico Rosberg Williams Toyota 660.0 10. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 664.0 11. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 681.5* 12. Kazuki Nakajima Williams Toyota 680.4* 13. Timo Glock Toyota 689.0* 14. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 665.0* 15. Adrian Sutil Force India Mercedes 668.5* 16. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 696.5* 17. Nelson Piquet Renault 689.6* 18. Sebastien Buemi STR Ferrari 686.5* 19. Giancarlo Fisichella Force India Mercedes 688.5* 20. Sebastien Bourdais STR Ferrari 701.0* * declared weight

The final piece of the supporting puzzle this morning saw the Formula 1 drivers jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, for the traditional parade round the circuit.

The drivers were taken round the circuit in the familiar truck and presented to the sparse crowd gathered in the grandstands.

They completed the slow tour and have gone back to their team motorhome areas, as they begin to prepare themselves for today's race.

Jeroen Bleekemolen returned to the top of the Porsche Supercup podium in the final support race this morning. The Dutchman lead from pole and held off an early challenge from Rene Rast to take his third win of the season and extend his championship lead.

Behind the top two, the action was provided by Jiri Janak and Richard Westbrook who battled in the early stages and went on to finish third and fourth.

Norbert Siedler finished fifth after being demoted from third by Janak and Westbrook, both slipping by the Austrian in spectacular moves at Turn 8.

The series continues in support of the British Grand Prix and should have a boost over today's sparse 13-car field, with additional entries from the national Carrera Cup teams.

Di Grassi

The GP2 series took its usual place on the support programme this morning with a 23 lap sprint race.

Polesitter Lucas Di Grassi held off the challenge of Javier Villa into the first corner and lead throughout, taking his first win of the season for Racing Engineering.

Saturday winner Vitaly Petrov fought strongly from eighth on the grid to the final podium slot. The Russian now leads the championship after team-mate and early championship leader Romain Grosjean failed to score for the third race in succession.

Grosjean provided much of the early interest as he stormed from 26th on the grid to 13th at the end of the first lap, but his march was halted by determined driving from Alvaro Parente and Diego Nunes and he finished 12th.

Di Grassi takes first victory of 2009

Glorious weather and strong sunshine awaits the drivers today as they battle for points round Istanbul Park.

The sun has been warm since dawn and, with no chance of cloud cover, there will be constant heat. The air temperature today is tipped to reach 32 degrees Celsius, equating to a track temp of 49 degrees - possibly touching the 50 Celsius mark during the race for a time.

Vettel

Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull Racing team took the fight to Brawn and came out on top in a fantastic battle during yesterday's knockout qualifying session.

The first period saw Lewis Hamilton exit stage left with no rear grip from his McLaren Mercedes MP4-24. The car was clearly a handful - especially through Turns 1 and 8 on his final run, which was only good enough for 16th place. Team-mate Kovalainen fared little better and starts 14th. McLaren need to generate more downforce at the back of the car - and quickly.

Adrian Sutil was to prove the main beneficiary of the world champion's misfortunes. The Force India driver hustled and dragged his VJM02 round the track in spectacular fashion, and has driven very well so far this weekend. A great drive and a bit of luck this afternoon could see the tall German make it into the points.

Up front, the top ten shootout had a predictable feel to it: The Brawn and Red Bull teams were having things their own way once again, and it was Vettel who snatched pole from Button on the final lap with a brilliant 1:28.316. The 21-year-old will be aiming to keep the mainly white cars behind him and score his second win of the season this afternoon.

Vettel beats Button to Turkish GP pole

Grandstand

AUTOSPORT Live is the platform to air your thoughts and opinions as the action unfolds at the circuit. Tell everyone how you think the race will pan out today. Forum members can do this in the live debate at the bottom of the page.

• Will Sebastian Vettel be able to stay ahead of the Brawn duo and clinch victory?

• Can Robert Kubica finally put some points on the board in a disastrous season so far?

• And what about the McLarens? Are we going to see Kovalainen and Hamilton make their way through to the top eight by the end of the race?

Tell the world what you think.

Click the SHOW LIVE FORUM link in the red bar at the bottom of your browser window if you'd like to join the debate.

Hello everyone and welcome to AUTOSPORT Live for round seven of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Following two largely processional races at Barcelona and Monaco, the sport moves to the 5.338 km Istanbul Park circuit where overtaking is guaranteed.

The race to catch Jenson Button in the championship continues today, and we will have full coverage of the 58-lap race.

Before then, we will set the scene with a review of yesterday's action, updates from this morning's support events and a look at the fuel loads and what they will mean for the drivers this afternoon.

We are set for a great race at the 2009 ING Turkish Grand Prix.