Japanese GP: Caterham duo say HRT, Marussia not a worry

For most of the past three seasons Caterham's two cars have qualified comfortably ahead of the other squads that joined the fray in 2010.

But while Kovalainen claimed his habitual 19th place in Suzuka qualifying, Petrov was only 23rd, behind both Marussias and Pedro de la Rosa's HRT.

The Russian insisted this was down to a mistake and he is certain he will be able to recover in the race.

"On my second run I was at least seven tenths up on my previous quickest lap, but I made a mistake in Turn 14 [Spoon] and that cost me a lot of time," said Petrov.

"Despite that I'm not disappointed with where I finished. Heikki's lap shows that we have a gap of around six tenths to the cars behind and while they're doing a good job in trying to catch up with us we're also working as hard as we can to pull away from them and try and fight with the cars ahead."

Kovalainen said he would not be losing any sleep over Marussia and HRT either.

"Really, for me, I'm not worried about the cars behind me," he said.

"The team is doing everything they can to keep progressing and I want to do whatever I can to help them."