Piquet Jr. on Istanbul pole in hot title chase

Brazilean racer Nelson Piquet Jr. claimed the pole position for race one of GP2 Series on the Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey and reduced to nine his gap with Lewis Hamilton -- who qualified in fifth place -- in the chase for the title.

Another Latin-American driver, Argentinean`s José María López, came up in second spot right ahead of Italian racer Giorgio Pantano.

I'll need to be cautious tomorrow, not to make any mistakes, not to go over the speed limit in the pits and just do a calm race and stay in front of Lewis

Nelson Piquet Jr.

Piquet, who also dominated the morning free practice, set 1.34:741 in his first quick attempt of the session and that was enough to take another pole position and two very important points in his aim of achieve the series' championship at the end of the final round to be held at Monza in two weeks time.

"I think everything just went perfectly. The last few races have been going very well and the results have just come. I'll need to be cautious tomorrow, not to make any mistakes, not to go over the speed limit in the pits and just do a calm race and stay in front of Lewis", the polesitter commented.

Super Nova`s driver López was able to get the front row in the last part of the session and the Argentinean now looks steady to take his maiden victory of the season, but he will respect Piquet`s condition of fighting for the championship.

"It was OK. You can always do better - everybody can do better. I'll be pushing hard but I don't want to get involved in an accident. Nelson is fighting for the championship, so I'm not going to try anything stupid. I don't usually, and I'm not going to start now", López said.

Pantano put his Petrol Ofisi FMS International car in the lead of the second row and will have the clean side of the track to try attack the lead on Saturday.

"I prefer to be third than second because in third we start on the clean side of the grid for the race. I think we are very close, us three and the ART cars, and for sure it will be an interesting race. Tyre wear should be OK. We have the hard compound so I don't see any particular problems", Pantano stated.

Alex Premat will join Pantano in the second row right ahead of his teammate and standings leader Hamilton. Alongside the British will be Adam Carroll in Racing Engineering`s car followed by Luca Di Grassi, Ernesto Viso, Alexandre Negrão and Timo Glock closing top ten places.

A number of drivers spent time off track as they pushed over the limit to improve their times, but the only man to fail to bring his car home was local driver Jason Tahinci, whose engine let go on him halfway around the track.

Tomorrow`s race one of the weekend will start at 15.45 local time to complete 24 laps (181km) where the fight for the title will set yet another exciting stage.