Piquet hopes to come through field

The loss of a brake duct caused the brakes to overheat on his Renault, leading to a spin and then a trip into the gravel trap, where he ended Q1 beached and eliminated from qualifying.

The Brazilian said he had been trying in vain to drive around the problem.

"I knew I had a brake problem from the beginning of qualifying and so I was being cautious, but it wasn't easy as the track was so slippery," he said. "On the last run the problem got worse and I spun off."

But Piquet believes he has a better chance of recovering from his lowly position at Istanbul than other circuits.

"I will remain positive for tomorrow as this is a track with good overtaking opportunities and hopefully we can have a strong race," he said.

His team-mate Fernando Alonso had a less eventful session and qualified eighth, which was less than he had hoped for.

"I have mixed feelings from this qualifying session," he said. "Q2 was really difficult and we only just made it through to Q3 in tenth position, but our level of performance and lack of pace meant we could only manage eighth on the grid, which is a bit disappointing.

"Unfortunately I will start from the dirty side of the track, which will make the start of the race difficult, but I still hope that I can challenge for some good points in the race."