Liuzzi encouraged despite traffic delay

Tonio Liuzzi believes Force India took a step forward with its qualifying performance in Abu Dhabi today and thinks he could have started higher than 16th had he not lost time behind Vitaly Petrov

The Italian's team-mate Adrian Sutil took 13th place on the grid.

"We were in good shape today," said Liuzzi. "We didn't have enough for Q3 but we've shown a step in performance from the previous races.

"The balance was good and with the second set of tyres it was getting better and better. Unfortunately I got some traffic with Petrov on my last lap in the last sector and lost about three tenths, which cost us at least a position or two.

"We do know though that the car is quick and I think we are in good shape and for the race tomorrow."

Sutil agreed that Force India was in better form in Abu Dhabi than it had been of late.

"It was not easy in the last few races but it was a clean lap today, close to the top 10 and it puts us in a strong position for the race," he said.

"The VJM03 worked very well and the balance was good - we could even do three laps on the soft tyre, which is unusual in qualifying.

"We finished very close to the top 10 and now the clear goal is to break into the points. I am convinced we can get up there based on the performance throughout the season - we need a good start and strategy and a race that comes to us."