Sebastian Vettel was back on form in Istanbul, taking pole position in a dominant performance by Red Bull. Mark Webber finished the session second, and the pair of them were so sure of their positions that they decided not to go out for a final run.

Vettel even climbed out of the car, preferring to watch the last few minutes of Q3 on screen.

It was a disappointing watch as a viewer, but for Red Bull, it was a job well done. The team had been forced to hurriedly rebuild Vettel's car after a crash in the first Free Practice session, and it was such a big job he missed out on FP2 completely.

After qualifying, Vettel spoke of the strange ending to his session: "It was a bit funny in Q3 today, as both Mark and I decided we would skip the second run and so we finished earlier than normal. It was a strange feeling, as the other cars are on track setting times and you are in the garage watching - they might beat you, but you can only watch the screens and there's nothing you can do. It was an odd feeling but a good decision to save tyres for tomorrow's race."