24/08/2007
NEWS STORY
Luca Filippi (Super Nova International) Pole - I'm really happy because we needed this pole, because we had two very bad weekends. We scored zero points, so I got more points with this pole than from the last two weekends. I think our potential was good anyway in the last two weekends anyway. Free practice we were always fighting on top, but here we demonstrated that we are still there and our potential is good.
Timo Glock (iSport International) 2nd - It was a pretty good lap and I overdrove maybe the car a little bit in the last sector in the last three corners. I think that maybe a tenth or one and a half, but for a 34.2 was quite quick and I think fastest was not possible for me today.
Andi Zuber (iSport International) 3rd - Qualifying was quite OK, just a little bit of traffic and on my quickest lap I did a mistake in the last corner but as Timo said a 34.2 was a very good lap from Luca and would be very difficult to beat. So I'm quite happy with third place.
Adam Carroll (FMS International) 5th - Fifth place isn't a bad place to start from and hopefully we can get another podium and fight for the lead tomorrow. Things were close today and qualifying was hard and I'm sure it is going to be a tough race tomorrow, especially with the weather conditions being so hot. There are overtaking opportunities for sure, two years ago I went from 22nd to second and I've always gone well here in the past. We've had some good races here so hopefully we'll have another good one tomorrow.
Kazuki Nakajima (DAMS) 8th - The beginning of the qualifying session was difficult. The car balance was quite good but I can't take advantage of that. The lap time didn't come promptly. I improved my results during the last minutes and pushed up to the 8th place on the grid. Now, we have to think at the strategy for tomorrow. If we can score the podium, it will be very good.
Nicolas Lapierre (DAMS) 14th - This qualifying session was not extraordinary for me. The shorten free practice of this morning has penalized the general set up of the car. As the track conditions changed, it was difficult to find some grip. Now, I am focused on the technical analysis of this session with the engineering staff in order to find some improvements for tomorrow's race. I will do my best to win places on this circuit where we can overtake.
Jason Tahinci (FMS International) 15th - I'm happy because that was the best qualifying of the season for me today and it makes it extra special that it is at my home race. It was a bit unfortunate that I got traffic on my first lap so I couldn't make the most out of the tyres on that run. Now it's important to set up the car well for the race tomorrow, go for a good start and drive well. I am aiming for a top ten, even a top eight position. The car is not bad at all. There are a few things to work on but in general it is working well and using the tyres well, so I'm looking forward to a good race tomorrow.
Kohei Hirate (Trident Racing) 17th - My qualifications were conditioned by an hydraulic gearbox problem that forced me into the pits after only 9 laps. Since I couldn't stay in-car for all the 30 available minutes, I was prevented from finding a good familiarity with the track. I scored the 9th best time with my first set of new tires, then I took some more risks but I made a mistake entering the last chicane. While the gearbox still had some problems in downshifting, the handling was extremely balanced and that, together with the good braking, let me high hopes for tomorrow's race.
Bruno Senna (Arden International) 18th - I love the circuit here, it's very challenging. Looking at the results today, it's easy to struggle a bit if you haven't been to a circuit before. My lines are fine and what I am doing is fine, but we have a bit of work to do on the car. The car feels pretty good, even though the times are not there, so the difficult part is figuring out what we have to do. My teammate is behind me - I think he is struggling with the car as well because he has driven here before. So we will look into the data and see if we can find something. I am sure we will make small changes everywhere and keep on learning.
Ricardo Risatti (Trident Racing) 22nd - Today I had to deal with many new situations. I feel like I've been improving each lap, and I saw my times grow progressively faster. I made a little mistake in turn 2, but I'm really happy not to have committed major errors. I'm entering tomorrow's race with definitely more reference points, and with the goal of ending up flawlessly.
To check out our Istanbul qualifying gallery, click here