Montoya Warns There's More to Come

Pedro de la Rosa was only pipped to the top spot by a last-lap effort from Ricardo Zonta, with Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen right behind him on the timesheets.

And although McLaren had obviously benefited from intensive pre-event simulation work conducted at their factory, Montoya is sure they can maintain their form - and even improve.

"The car and our Michelin tyres are working well, but we all have to expect a hard race on Sunday," said Montoya. "Michelin have brought a very good and consistent tyre for this event which is a definite advantage for us. We will keep on working tomorrow morning on making further improvements, and I look forward to the rest of the weekend."

Raikkonen, who is hoping to close down the 26-points deficit he has to Fernando Alonso in the Championship, said: "The guys back at base have done a lot of work preparing for this weekend and as a result we seem to have arrived with a good basis.

"It's still possible to improve the balance even more but so far so good. It was a bit slippery out there particularly as there was a little bit of rain, which seemed to affect the grip levels a lot. Let's see what happens tomorrow, but I think we are in good shape."

Despite the optimism of the drivers, however, Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug was more cautious about the team's prospects - believing other teams may not have shown their full potential yet.

"The layout of the Istanbul facilities is really demanding for both teams and drivers, and it will be interesting to see who will develop their package best for the race on Sunday," said Haug.

"Based on what we saw today it is difficult to tell who has done the best job so far. As for the team Kimi, Juan Pablo and Pedro went through their planned programmes and we believe to have worked out a good baseline for tomorrow's qualifying and Sunday's race. It will be a challenging one."