by Russell Atkins
Adrian Sutil has described his first experience of the challenging Istanbul Park circuit as like riding a rollercoaster – and judging by the smile on his face, it is one he is evidently not keen to get off.
Following
Jenson Button's engine change, the young German will line up 20th on the grid in his Spyker – the final race for the unloved A-spec F8-VII before the hoped-for introduction of the revised B-spec machine at Monza in a fortnight's time – and he clearly enjoyed his first taste of Turkish delight.
“It's my first time here and it's a really good track, with a unique turn eight,” he told
Crash.net. “It's a lot of fun with high g-forces, just like a big rollercoaster!
“It was a little bit difficult to learn because of all the blind corners where you can't see the apexes, but most of them are similar to some at other circuits so in a way you feel you already know your way around before you've even driven it. I like the track; it suits my driving style very well.”
The 24-year-old comprehensively outpaced team-mate Sakon Yamamoto for the second time in a row – on this occasion to the tune of almost two seconds – and though he knows it will be tough to make much progress during the race, he is nevertheless optimistic about being able to take the fight to some of the drivers and teams ahead.
“Today was a normal qualifying run,” he confirmed, “like we expected. We were four tenths away from the Toro Rosso in front of us which wasn't too bad, but there are no updates to the car so we haven't really been able to make any significant improvements throughout the weekend. Overall, though, my lap was very good and I'm happy with it.
“Tomorrow hopefully it will be possible to race some other cars again and have a fight like we did in Hungary. I want to be able to finish the race and produce some competitive and consistent lap times along the way whilst making no mistakes.”
