RBR right in the thick of things in Istanbul qualifying, as Coulthard answers his critics by returning to top ten for first time since Melbourne.
A 'strong team performance' has seen Red Bull Racing get both of its cars into the top ten on the starting grid in Istanbul this weekend for the first time in five outings - and the clear target now is to secure a double points finish in the race too.
Mark Webber's sixth place in particular went a long way to atoning for the Aussie's expensive practice shunt the previous day - one that had left his mechanics with much work to do prior to qualifying [see separate story - click here]. The 31-year-old repaid them with interest, however, by outpacing Renault's Fernando Alonso, Toyota ace Jarno Trulli and Nick Heidfeld in the BMW-Sauber to line up alongside the latter's team-mate Robert Kubica on row three of the grid for Sunday's race.
"It's good to get P6 today," Webber confessed, "after letting the team down yesterday with a bit of a shunt. The only downside of today's result is that we're on the left-hand side of the grid, but apart from that it went very well.
"We're in reasonable shape to get some good points tomorrow - we'll just have to keep our nose clean and have good, clean pit-stops. It's going to be an interesting race [and] the team has done a great job today - to get both cars into Q3 was a good effort."
On the back of two qualifying sessions in which he had failed to make it beyond the initial Q3 drop - beginning a lowly 17th in both Bahrain and Barcelona - David Coulthard had arrived in Turkey under something of a cloud and with murmurings intensifying about the safety of his seat at the Milton Keynes-based outfit. The experienced Scot answered those critics with aplomb by joining his team-mate in the final shoot-out, eventually settling for P10.
"I'm happy to be through to the top ten after problems at the last two grands prix," the 37-year-old admitted. "We used all our option tyres to get there, though - two sets in Q1 and two sets in Q2 - as I didn't want to take any risks. As a result, we only had primes left at the end. We only did one run in Q3 as we wanted to save fuel, so the car was very heavy."
Team principal Christian Horner was understandably pleased with the outcome, praising 'a strong team performance' as the squad bids to build on its current sixth position in the constructors' world championship chase, four points shy of Williams in fourth and just a sole marker adrift of fifth-placed Toyota.
"A strong team performance in this morning's practice was converted into solid grid positions this afternoon for tomorrow's race," the 34-year-old summarised. "Mark used his head in the final session and aborted a lap he wasn't entirely happy with, which meant he saved a lap of fuel. He then did an excellent lap and extracted everything from the car on option tyres to get P6.
"David did an excellent job to get comfortably through to Q3. As he had no soft tyres left for his final run, we were always adopting a strategic game with him. It was a strong team performance."
"We are very pleased with today's result," concurred engine supplier Renault's principal track support engineer Fabrice Lom. "To have both cars in the top ten is what we have been aiming for and now we have it. The Q2 times of both drivers were very good. Sixth and tenth is a good result for us; now let's see what we can do with that tomorrow."
