Fisichella slumps after Brazilian high

The Italian, who was handed the winner's trophy from the previous race at Imola, was mystified as to his car's lack of speed around the Italian track.

"Obviously this is not a good day," he said. "I'm very disappointed and confused because I don't know where other people are with fuel. Hopefully our strategy is good for tomorrow. I hope it's going to be wet."

Jordan's director of race and test engineering Gary Anderson said: "We were two seconds behind Michael [Schumacher] yesterday on low fuel qualifying and we're two seconds behind him today. With whatever fuel strategies everybody else has, that means we're a lot further back on the grid than we expected. It seems strange to me. We'll really have to wait until tomorrow."

Fisichella's team-mate Ralph Firman will start 19th, behind fellow rookie Justin Wilson of Minardi, after making a mistake at the opening corner of his lap which flatspotted a tyre.