Australia's Formula One world championship leader Mark Webber took his third successive pole position here on Saturday at the Turkish Grand Prix.

The 33-year-old Red Bull driver - who is equal on points with team-mate Sebastien Vettel but leads by virtue of races won this term - is bidding for a third successive victory.

For the seventh consecutive time this year the Milton Keynes-based team will start from the front row of the grid, but it was a close run thing as Webber narrowly edged out McLaren's Lewis Hamilton by 0.138seconds with a lap of one minute 26.295secs.

In making it three in a row, Webber became the first Australian to achieve such a feat since Sir Jack Brabham in 1960, and the first in Formula One since Ferrari's Felipe Massa three years ago.