Vitantonio Liuzzi blamed traffic for his failure to make it through to the second phase of qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix, while Toro Rosso
Sebastian Vettel was also bitterly disappointed with his day.
Liuzzi was one of the drivers disputing a spot inside the top 16 but when it looked as though he had done enough to sneak through,
Rubens Barrichello dropped him back to 17th by a mere six thousandths of a second.
It was a gap that Liuzzi was very frustrated by, not least because he claims he was unable to warm up his tyres sufficiently on a busy out lap, causing him to suffer when he made his final push.
“That was a shame to miss out by being just a few thousandths slower than Barrichello. On my final run I might have been able to go a little bit better but I went out in traffic and was not able to get my front tyres up to temperature and that made me lose out a bit in the first three corners. I lost a couple of tenths and that meant I had no chance of making it to Q2.
“Apart from that, my lap was actually almost perfect, so I have nothing to complain about really. Unfortunately, we still lack a bit of development and, for example, we have a new front wing on the way. The balance of the car was good, so I am still looking forward to the race.”
Vettel meanwhile was unable to get close to Liuzzi's pace again, the German having to settle for 20th on the grid when he lost time after being pulled into the weighbridge
“Of course I am disappointed because we should have and could have been quicker. My first problem was caused by the fact that I was pulled into the weighbridge which meant we had to change our programme for the session. After that, I went out quite late for just one last run and I was the last car on track.
"This meant I had a very slow out lap, so by then, I had low tyre temperature and pressure which cost me a lot of time. It's not as good as we expected, but life goes on and we will have to see what will be possible in the race tomorrow.”
