Barrichello delighted with top ten slot

Barrichello will start from eighth position with his Williams, the Brazilian saying a better time in Q3 would have been possible if not for traffic.

"Qualifying went quite well for me and I'm happy with the way things went," he said. "We went through Q1 and then I put a good lap in during Q2.

"I was pleased with my lap in Q3 but there was a bit more there which we missed out on due to traffic. I think we can achieve a better result tomorrow than we did in Bahrain.

"Eighth is a nice result, but I know everyone in the team aims a lot higher. I'm sure we will get there, but right now that is the limit of the car."

Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg admitted he was not pleased with his performance after finishing down in 15th position.

"I'm disappointed with qualifying and expected more," the German said. "The target was obviously to get into the top ten, but I didn't get the lap together and this is the result.

"This is my first qualifying here; it's not an easy circuit to learn and it's very narrow and quite bumpy. It will be difficult to get into the points tomorrow from P15, but you never know what could happen if the weather turns."