Formula One news
Raikkonen keeps cool to snatch Turkish pole
20 August 2005 / Results / PhotosOn an afternoon where half the field was caught out by the tricky new Istanbul circuit, Kimi Raikkonen kept his cool to secure pole position ahead of the two Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso. Qualifying saw many big names like Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button come unstuck particularly in the challenging turn eight and nine.
The two Red Bulls were first on track, following their disastrous retirements from the Hungarian Grand Prix. Minardi's Robert Doornbos was next and saw his qualifying go up in flames both his rear brakes erupted into fire at the end of his flying lap, which was until that point chronically slow.
Montoya was out fourth - penalised for his drive shaft failure in Hungary but the Colombian went easily fastest at the time with a lap of 1m27.3s but it would not be enough. Villeneuve was next out and spun his Sauber in the tricky middle sector, stalling on the racing line.
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Alonso knocked Montoya off the top of the timing sheets when he became the tenth driver to qualify at the new Istanbul circuit. The Spaniard did run slightly wide in the final sector but still went 0.3s quicker. Would it be enough? With his eye on the laps that Raikkonen and Button might produce, attention was diverted from Giancarlo Fisichella who nudged his team mate off pole by 0.011s.
Fighting for his F1 career, Takuma Sato ran very wide and off track on what until that point was a reasonable lap. The Japanese driver carried on until the finish but had lost over three seconds. Sato then seemed to fall asleep and ended up interfering with the flying lap of Mark Webber to the Australian's fury.
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Jenson Button's lap fell apart at turn eight - until that point the BAR Honda driver was 0.2s up on Fisichella's provisional pole, but lost it all as he ran off track.
As the session entered the final two runners Michael Schumacher took to the track ready to wrestle his Ferrari round The German was fast in the first sector but in turn nine the rear end snapped away from him, spinning him through 180 degrees and scrapping the German's lap.
Kimi Raikkonen was next on track - the final driver to qualify this session. The icy Finn drove a fearless lap to snatch pole from Fisichella by a quarter of a second. So tomorrow Raikkonen and Fisichella line up on the front row with Alonso and Montoya right behind them. Trulli qualified fifth ahead of Heidfeld, Webber and Felipe Massa.
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