Drivers eye back on Turkish qualifying

The drivers look back on an incidentful Qualifying on the new track in Turkey. Several drivers experienced difficulties in turn 8 where the asphalt is more bumpy than simulations expected. Both Schumacher brothers on their behalf missed turn 9 because of reduced grip levels compared to the morning sessions. As usual, all drivers go for the highest achievable positions.

Kimi Raikkonen: "I'm pleased to claim the first pole position for Formula 1 in Turkey. The lap was good but not perfect, and I lost a little bit of time in the last sector, but I knew I had some time in hand. We had made some changes to the car overnight and everything worked really well during practice this morning, so we knew we would have a strong chance for pole if everything went well. The circuit is great - it's so different from many of the others - especially with the ups and downs. It will be a tough race tomorrow, but I am really looking forward to it. We have a lot to fight for and hopefully we will be able to get the results we need and also put on a good show for the many Turkish spectators who will experience Formula 1 live for the first time."

His team mate at McLaren can be happy to with his performance. He placed his car just behind the Renaults.

Juan Pablo Montoya: "My qualifying lap was OK, but I know my time would have been so much better if I had done it later in the session. The car is working well and I have been strong in all sessions so far this weekend. The track is great and good fun to drive particularly when you have a competitive package and everything just comes together. There is no reason why I can't be strong in the race."

At Renault everyone is looking forward to the fight with McLaren
tommorow.

Fernando Alonso: "The conditions were much windier this afternoon than we had in practice, and we saw that it was a difficult qualifying session for all the drivers as lots of people went off. In that situation, you have to take the gamble of either taking some risks, or being conservative: I pushed hard and came through OK, so it is great to be third, on the clean side of the grid. The wind actually surprised me a little bit down the back straight - it was a strong tailwind, and I braked at my normal point but missed the apex, which cost me some time. We have both cars in the top three and I will go into the race with the aim of trying to beat Kimi."

Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault's second driver, surprised everyone after bad results in the last races by placing his car next to Raikkonen on the grid.

Fisico: "It is great to be on the front row for tomorrow's race. We have worked hard this weekend to get a good set-up on the car, and the team has done a great job, which you can see from the grid positions. The only problem with my lap was when I came up on Barrichello at the end - we were very close through turns 12 and 13, and it disrupted my concentration, costing me a couple of tenths. Everything else went well though, so I am very positive for tomorrow."

The Williams team also has its reasons to be optimistic for the race.

Nick Heidfeld (6th): "My qualifying lap was ok. As usual, it's difficult to find all the grip on the first lap but I am quite satisfied with this result, especially if I look at the rest of the weekend when I had some small, annoying problems in nearly every session. At least qualifying went all right! It looks like we are in better shape than we have been in the last few races, which is the most important thing. We are making progress and hopefully we will collect some points tomorrow."

Mark Webber placed his car just after his compagnon Heidfeld.
Mark Webber: "As with qualifying these days, we won't really know our performance until the race but we look pretty reasonable here. Obviously BAR didn't have any communications, or Takuma didn't know what was happening. He did a very slow lap, then an even slower in-lap, which compromised my qualifying but that's how it goes. That was a really important corner and it probably compromised my lap by about three tenths of a second. We're still up there though."

Jacques Villeneuve doesn't have any reason to party tonight, he slipped during his Qualifyinglap.

Jacques Villeneuve: "The track was very slippery, a lot more than this morning, and I just pushed too hard. My lap was faster than I thought up until I spun. Turn 8 is a real challenge, and the car got away from me there. I probably should have pushed a little bit less, I guess."

The Ferrari's again disappointed the crowd and themselfs.
Barrichello qualifyed 11th and Schumi (after a spin at turn 9) is 17th.

Rubens Barrichello: "Even though we adopted a conservative approach to qualifying, I was fighting with a lack of grip from the car. I am confident the tyres will be good for the race, however, in qualifying we had some graining issues, which cost me time in the final sector where I had too much understeer. My lap was on the limit of what I could do and for tomorrow I think eleventh place means I can have a good race especially as the car seems to perform better when the tyres are worn than when they are completely new. It's a shame for Michael that he went off."

Micheal Schumacher himself said: "We have been uncompetitive all weekend so far, therefore I had not expected to qualify very well: maybe around seventh place, which would not have been too bad for tomorrow's race. Even though we should really be looking for race wins, we could at least have been fighting for points. But, I went off the track and this is the result. We had expected Turn 9 to be difficult as the wind had picked up and I thought I had taken this into account, but obviously not enough. In the race, all I can do is push hard and try and do my best. It is still important for us to do as well as possible here, to help our chances in qualifying at Monza. After our performance in Hockenheim and Budapest, this weekend is clearly a step backwards."

It promisses to be a very tensed race on the brand new circuit near Istanbul. Lot of it will depend on the tyres and the fuel gameplan of the teams.