HRT team principal Colin Kolles has said that the team will be looking to "take the next step" at the Turkish Grand Prix.
After not testing its new car prior to the season and missing the race in Australia having qualified outside the 107% time, HRT have made encouraging progress. The team comfortably qualified for the second race in Malaysia, and both cars finished the last race at Shanghai. With new updates being added to the F111 this weekend in Turkey, Kolles felt that HRT had the potential to beat Virgin.
"I believe that the Turkish Grand Prix should see Hispania Racing take the next step," Kolles said. "Istanbul Park is a track that, due to its nature, should be favourable for us, add to that the fact that we have aerodynamic and mechanical updates for this race and I think that, if the data is confirmed on track, we should be able to beat our closest rivals."
"Our aim for the weekend is to close the gap with respect to our closest competitors in qualifying and fight for positions in the race, hopefully getting both cars over the finish line. Hispania Racing has made significant progress since the start of the season, we are working very hard to improve and definitely will improve".
Tonio Liuzzi was equally optimistic for the race, and said that HRT could use the weekend as an opportunity to signal its intentions for the future.
"I think we should be in much better shape due to the updates arriving here in Turkey and after the time out on the track in the last few races," Liuzzi said. "Every minute on the track is important for us.
Our target for Turkey is to verify that our updates are working as per plan, closing the gap on the leader and obviously finishing the race ahead of our direct competitors. If everything goes to plan, I think Hispania Racing can surprise a lot of people by closing the gap considerably with respect to other teams thereby showing how serious our intentions of growing are".
Liuzzi's team-mate Narain Karthikeyan said he was focussing on getting more out of the car than he has so far this season.
"I hope to continue from where I left off in Shanghai by finishing the race, gathering valuable data and getting closer to optimising the potential of the F111, which I know has a lot more to give. We are moving in a good direction ever since our first race in Malaysia, so I'm sure that with the upgrades due on the car for Turkey, we will take another step forward towards challenging the teams who are just in front of us".
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