Durango - Davide Valsecchi (10th) Nelson Panciatici (23rd)

Davide Valsecchi placed his Durango at the tenth position of today Istanbul qualifying session. Nelson Panciatici classified at P23. Because of a yellow flag exposed during the last, and more crucial, three minutes of the session many drivers could not try their last flyer. Davide was one of them. Despite this the driver from Eupilio declared: "I thought about last year crash just during the first lap this morning, then I minded just to do my best. During the final I was not able to shoot the last cartridge because of the yellow flag but, all in all, I am quite satisfied with my car and with my drive. I do like the track and I want to go for a good race tomorrow". Nelson Panciatici said: "Very beautiful circuit but I think I tried my fast lap during the wrong moment. This is the reason of my grid position. For tomorrow I should be happy with a top fifteen finish".

iSport International - Giedo van der Garde (12th) Diego Nunes (18th)

iSport were back in action today at Istanbul Park for round 3 of the GP2 Series. After contact with the barriers in practice the iSport mechanics worked furiously to repair Brazilian Diego Nunes' car in time for qualifying. With glimpses of promise early on in qualifying both drivers were hindered on the second set of tyres by yellow flags and traffic. In a session where only 1 second covered to top 18 these valuable fractions of a second made all the difference. To add to iSport's woes both drivers were handed 3 place grid penalties for failing to sufficiently slow their vehicles in a yellow flag zone during the earlier practice session.

Giedo van der Garde: "It was ok. The first set of tyres we were in the top 6. But with the second set we were a bit disappointed as the first flying lap I did I was quick but the last sector a car blocked me so I backed off. The next lap I was quick through the first sectors again but the car in front went off just in front of me and then came back on track and the tyres were finished. We were P12 but we also got a penalty because this morning I did a quick sector time under a yellow flag so we have 3 positions penalty now"

Diego Nunes: "I went well on the first set of tyres; I think I was about P11. But with the second set of tyres I could not get a quick lap with yellow flags and traffic. It was really close in times even 2 or 3 tenths quicker would have been about 10 positions. But we also got penalised down to 21st, they gave us a 3 position penalty. There is nothing we can do but try and have a good race and try to finish P8. The crash in practice was a small crash, a silly crash actually but the car was perfect after the team fixed it for qualifying".

Fat Burner Racing Engineering - Lucas Di Grassi (14th) Dani Clos (22nd)

The Fat Burner Racing Engineering team arrived in Turkey with high hopes for the third round of the 2009 GP2 season. However, luck was definitely not on the Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers' side during the first day at Istanbul Park.

While Lucas Di Grassi set the sixth fastest time in free practice, Dani Clos was disappointed finishing the session in 26th place. Early in the session, the young Spaniard spun off the track and was not able to gain further experience, his main objective before qualifying, at the Turkish track. Later on, Dani was additionally handed a ten place grid position penalty for failing to heed the marshal's instructions after his spin.

The opening stages of Friday's qualifying session in Turkey saw a lot of action on the track and this hampered both Fat Burner Racing Engineering drivers' attempts to complete a clear lap, which could have placed them in a good position for Saturday's feature race at Istanbul Park.

Lucas was running well on his first set of tyres and was in the top 5 when he entered the pits for his new set of tyres. Rejoining the session, the Brazilian was in 10th place and immediately started to improve his sector times. However, on his flying lap, another car was dramatically slowing down in front of the Fat Burner Racing Engineering driver in the last sector and he not only saw his top 3 position on the grid disappear, but couldn't avoid a slight touch. During the remaining minutes of the session many drivers decided to enter into the pits and finish the session early as yellow flags caused by Petrov and Maldonado made any lap time improvements impossible. Lucas finished Friday's qualifying session in 14th position.

Dani, on the other hand, saw his options for a good grid position destroyed before the qualifying session even started as he was handed over a 10 position grid penalty. Having missed a good bit of the morning session, the Spanish rookie needed to adapt to the Turkish race track during qualifying and also struggled to find a gap allowing him to set a faster lap time. Dani finished the qualifying in 22nd position.

Lucas Di Grassi: Everything was really fine and went as planned until we put the last set of tyres. We would have easily been in the top 3 but when I was on my fastest lap, another car blocked me in the last sector. This car not only blocked me but it also slowed me down a lot and we even touched a bit. So I lost the lap and therefore qualifying ended really bad for us as after that there were yellow flags until the end of the session. Now we have to work something out for tomorrow.

Dani Clos: I definitely lacked kilometers and therefore in qualifying I had to kind of make up the time I didn't run in free practice. Additionally, I have the 10 grid positions penalty from the morning session, when I spun on Turn 1. The options towards tomorrow's race are rather limited. Now we have to find the best strategy for Saturday's feature race.