Sutil confident he can reach Q2

The Force India driver finished the day as sixth quickest, despite having his running cut short in the morning due to a problem with his car.

Sutil reckons reaching the top ten will not be easy, but he is confident he can go into the second qualifying segment for the third time this season.

"It was a good Friday for us that showed some real improvement from previous weekends," said Sutil. "Sixth was a good effort from the team and it felt quite good. I think it will be difficult to get into the top 10 tomorrow but I do feel a good Q2 performance would be realistic.

"Today started off quite difficult when I had a problem in the morning and couldn't get much running in and in the afternoon I also had a small issue with the steering that took a little while to get sorted. We could test a few items though, including the range of tyres here.

"It's difficult to say at the moment about their performance as it's good at the beginning of the run and then goes a little off in the end so we will see. Plus it's very difficult to judge the weather conditions - it's been typical Eifel weather! It changes every hour, going from very cold to sunshine.

"As such it's difficult for the hard tyres to warm up but we'll play with the strategy tomorrow to try and make it work for us."

Team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella was also quick today, but the Italian's day came to an early finish when he spun off just three laps into the afternoon session.

Fisichella, fifth fastest in the morning, finished at the bottom of the times.

"I think it was about right for the team today, with both drivers in the top six in either session," he said. "The first session for me was quite good with a promising position, but it was quite disappointing in the afternoon.

"I caught a kerb that was still wet and just spun into the barriers. I think I could have done well in the second session, but it looks encouraging for tomorrow for another Q2."