Predictions that one of the bigger names would come a cropper during the revised qualifying session at Istanbul Park proved true as Nelson Piquet Jr failed to make the top 15 times in Q1.
While not yet established among
F1's leading lights, the Brazilian would have hoped to make the cut given
Renault's recent improvements, but found himself joining
Williams'
Kazuki Nakajima as unexpected members of the 'drop zone club', along with the two Force Indias and Toro Rosso's
Sebastien Bourdais.
While
Ferrari and
McLaren battled it out for top spot - with Istanbul Park specialist
Felipe Massa finally claiming the fastest time of the session in 1min 25.994secs on a late run - the opposite end of the timesheets provided the real excitement, with at least ten drivers in danger of missing the cut-off point.
Although the two
BMW Saubers, which hadn't set a time with six minutes remaining, comfortably made it through, neither
Giancarlo Fisichella nor
Adrian Sutil could improve enough to haul themselves out of the bottom five - one less than previous races following the demise of
Super Aguri. Likewise, Bourdais could not better 16th, having been dumped into the zone by
Robert Kubica's improvement.
Piquet, however, would have hoped to find time on his final run, but ruined his effort by going off at turn ten. The Brazilian appeared to have escaped the bottom five when he deposed Nakajima from 15th, but was then dumped back in by
Rubens Barrichello's greater improvement. Nakajima, too, would have thought himself capable of better, but failed to improve on his 16th best time.
Toyota impressed in the latter stages of the session, with both
Jarno Trulli and
Timo Glock vaulting into the top four after fitting the softer tyres.
