Salo misses top ten slot

'I just couldn't put a lap together this afternoon, which is very frustrating,' said the Finn. 'Yesterday I was afraid that traffic would be a problem, but really I just didn't get the last chicane right.

'I kept hitting kerbs too hard, which made it very difficult to get the power down. That just made the traction problem I was having even worse.'

With the second Sauber of Pedro Diniz starting tenth however, team boss Peter Sauber was content.

'Our aim is always to qualify at least one of our cars in the top ten,' he said. 'Both car and driver must be very good to be only 0.2s away from Jarno Trulli's Jordan. It is a very good start to our European season to be so close to the works teams.

'I would like to thank the team for their focused and effective work, which cannot have been easy after all the pleasure we have been under recently.'

Sauber began 2000 badly, Salo losing a hard-fought sixth place in Australia when he was disqualified due to irregularities on the front wing. Both cars were then withdrawn before the start in Brazil after a series of rear wing breakages in practice.