1. Heikki Kovalainen 1m 28.841s
2. Fernando Alonso 1m 28.847s
3. Robert Kubica 1m 29.056s

5. Sebastian Vettel 1m 29.202s

Sebastian Vettel thinks it is time for Red Bull Racing to respond to the challenge of Brawn if his team is to keep its world championship hopes alive.

The German, who is the only driver other than Jenson Button to have won a race this year, believes himself and his Milton Keynes-based outfit need to banish the mistakes that have left them drifting away from their rivals in the title standings.

Speaking ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix, Vettel conceded that Red Bull Racing had to start closing down the 28-point deficit that has opened up between himself and Jenson Button.

"I think so, yes," said Vettel when asked if the time had come for the team to react. "I know we have quite a big gap to the cars in front, and especially Jenson, if you look at the championship board. But we have to focus on ourselves.

"We have done a couple of mistakes in the last races and maybe put our money on the wrong strategy. But we try our best to do everything right here. I think we have a very competitive car and we have some new bits which might not have helped us so much in Monaco but should help us here - and a car that generally likes fast corners as you have in Istanbul."

Red Bull Racing is expected to provide Brawn's main challenge in Istanbul, with the RB5's strengths, plus its new double-decker diffuser, more likely to come to the fore on the track’s high-speed turns than it did at Monaco.

"In Monaco it was very difficult to read if it was an improvement or not," said Vettel about the new diffuser. "Everything we could read from the data was positive, and it should help us here as we have a few more fast corners and not so much stop-go like there was in Monaco. So we will see.

"I think our car will be feeling well on this circuit. But we have the whole weekend in front of us so we have to prove that."

He added: "We are not afraid of anyone. Looking at the championship and looking at the results, Brawn is the team said to be favourite – for here as well. But we are here to do our best and our target is to win, so we try to beat them."

Sebastian Vettel has expressed scepticism about some of the names that are bidding to set up Formula One teams for 2010.

So many entries for next year's budget-capped championship have been lodged that, theoretically, the grid would be more than full even if the rebel FOTA teams do not sign up.

But Vettel, who drives for Red Bull Racing, warned observers to wait until it becomes truly clear which teams will be occupying the Melbourne garages next March.

"Perhaps it's best to wait," the 21-year-old is quoted as saying in Istanbul by Speedweek.

"And with regards to all these new teams, perhaps everything will not be the same when it comes the time to put the money on the table," added Vettel.

1 N. Rosberg Williams 1:28.952 24 laps
2 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:29.263 23 laps
3 J. Trulli Toyota 1:29.271 26 laps
4 S. Vettel RBR 1:29.337 18 laps

Roberto was lucky enough to attend Bandini Awards this sunday and brought us some exclusive images from the event. You can check those and also some official media images in our gallery.

Click here to check the images

We'd like to thank everyone because yesterday we achieved the impressive number of 100.000 visitors in the website's life. That's real a lot since it doesn't have even two years of life, and show how big and strong are the Sebastian fans all around the world. So, again, thanks a lot to everyone that helped a little (or a lot) for this number to happen, and we hope it will only grow more. Also, thanks Seb because he's the main reason and responsible for bringing you all here, and more fans each day!

Kati