Bourdais frustrated despite Q2 effort

The Frenchman was 13th fastest in the first qualifying segment, but then was unable to do better than 16th after being hit by understeer problems.

Despite saying yesterday that his Toro Rosso team would struggle to make it into Q2, the four-time Champ Car champion admitted he wanted more.

"Obviously, I was quite happy to be thirteenth in Q1 because it really wasn't the greatest lap, as I had quite a lot of traffic in front of me," he said.

"Unfortunately, the track conditions kept improving and we were running out of adjustments to dial out the understeer in Q2.

"It was a bit frustrating, because it felt as though the car had some more in it. Then, on my last run I aborted the lap because I had a moment, which was down to the fact we tried something different to try and get rid of the understeer, but it did not give us grip and it upset the balance."

Sebastian Vettel was outqualified by his teammate for the second time in a row, the young German failing to move into Q3.

Vettel, who had to settle for 18th, admitted he was not driving confidently.

"I was always struggling a bit in the first sector of the lap," he said. "Towards the end of Q1, I was reasonably well placed, but I did not feel confident with the car as I had no feeling for it in that first sector. It seemed as though the car wasn't ready and it was sliding around a lot.

"As we know, it's tight in the midfield and I missed out by not very much, because the rest of my lap was okay. Sebastien made it comfortably into Q2 so there is something we need to work on. The race will hopefully be a different story, after just not having the pace in qualifying."