Rosberg Secures Istanbul Pole
Nico Rosberg has added Istanbul to his growing collection of pole positions after setting a time of 1:38.416, taking the top spot just ahead of Scott Speed and Jose Maria Lopez
Rosberg set his time just before a light sprinkling of rain dusted the track, which ensured that nobody would be able to better the time after a highly competitive qualifying session.
This morning's fastest man Speed was the early pacesetter, and the first man to break the 1:39 barrier on his first full lap, but thereafter the lap times tumbled.
Nelson Piquet Jr, Giorgio Pantano and then Speed headed the times before Rosberg made the top spot his own.
Pantano and Piquet rounded out the final top five places, with the Brazilian stopping on track in the dying minutes of the session while trying to reclaim the top spot.
With the track providing much more grip than this morning's practice session courtesy of the Formula One runners, off-track incidents were kept to a minimum - only Lopez, Olivier Pla and Can Artam spun, with the latter pair doing so on a slightly damp track at the end of qualifying.
The twelve teams were able to markedly improve their laptimes from this morning - Rosberg's qualifying lap was almost two seconds faster than Speed's fastest practice time, and the top seven drivers were split by just one second, with two seconds covering the first seventeen drivers.Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Rosberg ART 1:38:416 9 2. Speed iSport 1:38:531 + 0.115 11 3. Lopez DAMS 1:38:561 + 0.145 13 4. Pantano Super Nova 1:38:690 + 0.274 9 5. Piquet Hitech Piquet 1:38:820 + 0.611 11 6. Premat ART 1:38:897 + 0.481 9 7. Carroll Super Nova 1:39:335 + 0.919 11 8. Bruni Coloni 1:39:533 + 1.117 12 9. Garcia Racing Eng. 1:39:708 + 1.292 10 10. Yoshimoto BCN Comp. 1:39:737 + 1.321 14 11. Alvarez Campos Racing 1:39:830 + 1.414 10 12. Jani Racing Eng. 1:39:982 + 1.566 11 13. Kovalainen Arden 1:40:040 + 1.624 12 14. Hernandez Campos Racing 1:40:064 + 1.648 12 15. Fauzy DAMS 1:40:081 + 1.665 13 16. Monfardini Durango 1:40:205 + 1.789 12 17. Negrao Hitech Piquet 1:40:295 + 1.879 12 18. Lapierre Arden 1:40:629 + 2.213 12 19. Mondini DPR 1:40:749 + 2.333 12 20. Piccione Durango 1:40:770 + 2.354 13 21. Viso BCN Comp. 1:40:794 + 2.378 13 22. Artam iSport 1:40:952 + 2.536 14 23. Pla DPR 1:40:956 + 2.540 6 24. Lauda Coloni 1:41:184 + 2.768 11 All Timing Unofficial
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