Zoom Piquet looking at the peformance and not the position

Nelson Piquet finished a lowly 16th at the conclusion of last Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix, but the Brazilian believes he did enough to fend off speculation about his future.

On the face of it, allied with his spin into the gravel during the 'Q1' period of qualifying on Saturday, the Istanbul weekend was another poor result for the young Renault driver.

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 Reanult team-mate 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.

D.B. © CAPSIS International
Source: GMM