Coulthard Welcomes 'Lucky' Qualifying

David Coulthard admitted that he and Red Bull Racing teammate Christian Klien were fortunate to both qualify inside the top 12 for the Turkish Grand Prix

The duo had to go out first in the session, because of their early exits from the Hungarian Grand Prix, and had been expecting the worst after being hampered by the dirty track conditions.

But thanks to a host of incidents by some front-running stars, Klien eventually held on to finish 10th fastest, with Coulthard just two places back.

Coulthard said: "We were lucky to get away with 12th there. It's difficult to know what to expect when you're driving on new tyres; we ran on a new set this morning and were actually slower than we had been on scrubbed ones. As a result, I was cautious at the beginning of the qualifying lap when the grip levels were a little unpredictable.

"As the lap progressed, I began to push a bit more, but ran wide at Turn eight and nine due to dust that my tyres had picked up on that part of the track. It's a challenging circuit that's for sure. There are lots of difficult corners, but the trickiest thing is the bumps. When the car unloads over those, things get pretty interesting."

Klien added: "That was a difficult lap. It's hard to judge what the conditions are going to be like when you're second out on the track, but the balance of the car felt good and I was able to push quite hard.

"I didn't make any mistakes during qualifying, which is really important here as the track's so demanding."