Bourdais hoping for 'crazy' weather

The four-time Champ Car champion, who enjoyed a brilliant debut in Australia, was unable to make it to the second qualifying segment today after being hit by a brake problem during his final run.

The Toro Rosso driver is now relying on the weather to repeat his Australian feat.

"I was in P15 on my second run and the car felt good so we should have had a shot at Q2, but then I had a brake problem at the second corner, I pumped the brake pedal but when I got to Turn 4, the pedal went to the floor again and there was nothing I could do," said the Frenchman.

"It's been a tough weekend so far, as I did not get too much running yesterday. The stars do not seem to be aligning in our favour.

"Hopefully, I will have better luck tomorrow, maybe if the weather turns crazy."

Teammate Sebastian Vettel, who had qualified in the top ten in Melbourne, did make it to Q2, but the German admitted that was the best he could have hoped for and admitted Q3 was out of reach.

"Today, Q3 was definitely out of our reach," Vettel, 15th, said. "Unlike Melbourne this is a circuit where you have a lot of fast corners and so it did not suit us as well. All the same, I think we did pretty much the best we could. Unfortunately, on my last flying lap I made a mistake at Turn 14.

"Of course I was pushing hard to get as close as possible to Q3, higher up the grid at least and it cost me about two tenths. But we can be reasonably satisfied. I think we have a good set-up for race conditions."