Kubica happier with BMW's pace

The Pole, whose team have suffered a slump in form in recent races, will start tomorrow's event from third place, his best result since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Kubica reckons BMW are in better form than in past races, although he admits the gap to Ferrari and McLaren is still significant.

"It has been a very good qualifying for myself and the team after some unlucky races," Kubica said. "The pace of the car here in Valencia is not as bad as it was before but also we are missing a bit of time to Ferrari and McLaren.

"Qualifying went pretty smoothly, only the weather was playing a bit. We were anticipating everyone to make sure we would be fine with the laptime to go into next qualifying."

"Rain didn't have an effect, only in qualifying two there were some drops after corner 10 in the last part of the back straight but it didn't have any effect."

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld qualified in eighth position.