Jun.9 (GMM) Nelson Piquet finished a lowly 16th in Turkey, but on Sunday the Brazilian did enough to fend off speculation about his future
On the face of it, allied with his spin into the gravel in ‘Q1’ at Istanbul, it was another poor result for the young Brazilian
But according to Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, the 23-year-old was quietly smiling afterwards
Piquet overtook reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton in a daring and spectacular duel, and believes he would have finished higher than teammate Fernando Alonso’s tenth place
“If I had not had the brake problem in qualifying, and then not lost 15 seconds with a pitstop refuelling problem, the speed was there for a points finish,” he said
Moreover, for the first time in 2009, his best lap of the race was marginally quicker than former double world champion Alonso’s