Vettel surprised by smooth qualifying

The Red Bull driver secured his second pole position of the season in Istanbul after edging championship leader Jenson Button by over a tenth of a second in the dying moments of qualifying.

Vettel had endured a troubled practice on Friday, covering just four laps in the afternoon after being hit by an engine problem.

But the German dominated today's qualifying, becoming the first man to go quickest in all three segments.

Vettel, 28 points behind Button in the standings, said he will do his best to try to reduce the gap to the Brawn driver.

"We will try our best to keep this statistic alive but it won't be easy," Vettel said. "We have a very good chance here, a very good car.

"I expected more difficulties in qualifying but we made it. This is just half way and the main task for us comes tomorrow, it is a long race, very tough, it won't be an easy one, it will be exciting, so let's see."

He added: "In Friday practice we had an engine failure so I was not able to do a lot of laps but I had a good feeling for the car so I was quite confident.

"It was a surprise to be quickest in all sessions. Finally we made it. In the last couple of races we tried hard and finally we are ahead of these white guys (Brawn). Everything is positive so we will see tomorrow."

Vettel, the only man other than Button to have won a race this year, said Red Bull has done its homework for tomorrow, but he is still expecting a long race.

"I think in China I was confident, but it didn't help at all because the day after it was raining," he said about his victory in Shanghai. "It was a good race for us obviously with the conditions, but we could not show how good we could have been in the dry.

"Tomorrow should be so let's see how we get on tomorrow. We have done our homework so far but the main demands come tomorrow when we have to race 58 laps around here."