2007 Turkish Grand Prix Qualifying Report
Adrian Sutil (car 20, F8-VII/01):
FP3: 21st 1:30.044 (22 laps)
Q1: 21st 1:29.861 (9 laps)
Sakon Yamamoto (car 21, F8-VII/02):
FP3: 22nd 1:30.712 (21 laps)
Q1: 22nd 1:31.479 (7 laps)
Weather: Hot and humid. 33 C / 44 C air and track FP3, 36
C / 48 C in the afternoon.
The Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team will start tomorrow's
58-lap Turkish Grand Prix with Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto
in 21st and 22nd positions respectively after a searingly
hot qualifying session at the Istanbul Park circuit this afternoon.
As temperatures rose throughout the morning to peak at a
scorching 36 C for Q1, Adrian and Sakon worked on set-up and
optimising the performance of Bridgestone Potenza tyre range
available this weekend.
Confident with an improvement in balance this afternoon,
Adrian completed nine laps in Q1 to record a best of 1:29.861.
Sakon however did not better his morning's time as he was
hampered by a spin and a gearbox problem on two of his three
runs. The Japanese driver will start his second ever race
for the Etihad Aldar Spyker Formula One Team in 22nd position.
Adrian Sutil (car 20)
'We can be quite happy here, the gap is not that big and we
did the best we could with the old car. We found a good set
up and the lap came together in Qualifying. During the session
though it was very difficult to find a space in the traffic
and I only just crossed the line 10 seconds from the flag,
but I think we can be happy with the time and hope for more
in the race.'
Sakon Yamamoto (car 21)
'I am disappointed for us as we had had a fairly good weekend
so far and I think we had a reasonable set-up for Qualifying.
I was really looking forward to driving in it, but unfortunately
in the session we had some problems; I spun and then were
some problems with the gearbox and I couldn't recover as usual
as gear selection was a bit strange. It's a disappointing
result but I will try to do my best in the race. Our race
speed is always much better.'
Mike Gascoyne, chief technical officer
'A slightly disappointing Qualifying session. We always knew
it was going to be a struggle using the old car but Adrian
got about as much out of it as he could. Both cars did three
runs, but unfortunately for Sakon he made a mistake on his
first two, spinning on his second and then we had a problem
with the gearbox which meant he wasn't able to complete his
last run. Unfortunately he didn't set a competitive time,
which is a shame as he had had a good weekend until then.
As in Hungary though, we showed we could race the group in
front and that has to be the aim with Adrian. With Sakon it
is very important he gets a race distance under his belt.'
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