Webber satisfied with second place

The Red Bull driver, leading the championship by 14 points from team-mate Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, will start from behind the German, but in front of the Spaniard.

Webber, who finished less than a tenth off Vettel's pole time, admitted it had been a very close session.

"It was very close, I got second on the grid, which is a lot better off than other positions," said Webber. "It would be nice to get pole, but we can still do well from second. Today went to plan, it was pretty close.

"I wasn't overtly happy with the first lap on the options, I thought it was better for me to do two times and it turned out to be working not too bad. My second lap was my best so I suppose it was a good lap time but not quite enough to be the fastest."

He added: "We knew it was going to be a tight fight, it always is, and on the front row is still not too bad. We are ready to go for tomorrow. It was a good battle and we just missed out a little bit. We are ready to go for tomorrow."

The Australian, who decided to use his last new engine for this weekend, played down the advantage of having a new power unit.

"It is no big deal. It is just another engine. It doesn't make a huge different," he said.

Webber also refused to rule out the McLarens from the fight on Sunday, despite Lewis Hamilton qualifying in fourth and Jenson Button down in seventh.

"Of course, they will be very quick on the straights, we know that. It was quite predictable coming here that it was going to be like that."