Alguersuari eyes strong points finish in Korea after just missing Q3

The Toro Rosso driver will start from 11th position after being outpaced by Force India's Paul di Resta by just 0.030 seconds in the second qualifying segment.

Alguersuari is now hoping to score good points to close the gap on seventh-placed Sauber in the standings.

"Just three hundredths off Q3 so we can say this was a good qualifying for the team," said Alguersuari. "We did a good job, starting yesterday when the car felt fine in the wet. I think we now have a better understanding of some of the upgrades we introduced in Suzuka and made the most of them.

"I was also encouraged by the long run I did, as there was not as much tyre degradation as we had expected, so this issue should not trouble us tomorrow. I am expecting a lot from the race in which I hope we can score enough points to close up the gap to Sauber, who are starting behind us on the grid."

The Spanish driver also explained his incident with world champion Sebastian Vettel in this morning practice session, where the Red Bull driver was unhappy with Alguersuari for not letting him through.

"As for the incident this morning with Vettel, it's clear to me what happened: I was on a long run, he was on his fast lap, so I let him by. Then he made a mistake so he was behind me, but he caught me again. Having already let him by once, I pushed for another lap on my long run. You cannot keep letting one driver pass you.

"I know it would have been easier for him if I had moved over again, but I also had a job to do to get enough data, because we had no information regarding a long run in the dry because of yesterday's rain. I'm sorry about that, but they have to understand my point of view too."

Team-mate Sebastien Buemi will start the race from 13th position, and the Swiss admitted he could have done better.

"I am reasonably happy with my performance in today's qualifying, even if thirteenth is not where we really want to be," he said.

"However, we are getting very close to Q3 which is very important. Being two tenths off getting into the top ten is a sign that the car is improving.

"I am sure I could have done a bit better, but this still looks good for tomorrow, especially considering we had a strong long run in free practice this morning, during which we got a good idea about tyre degradation. This means we should be well prepared for the race, in which we have every reason to believe we can get a good result."