Bourdais: New car needs more time

The Frenchman, making his Formula One Monaco debut this weekend, took 16th position on the grid with the new car, but despite being held up by eventual poleman Felipe Massa on his first flying lap he admitted afterwards that was as high as he expected to qualify on Saturday.

"On my first lap I got caught up with Massa and my second was definitely going to be better, but that would not have changed anything," said Bourdais. "I am finding it very difficult to read what the car is doing, especially under braking when I am locking wheels a lot.

"In fact that was what caused the problem on my next run, because as I knew I had been locking the rear coming out of the tunnel, I moved the balance just one click to the front and sure enough, this time I lost the front.

"Also, as a general comment the car feels loose on the entry to most corners. Our situation was not helped by the fact we still lack experience with the new car and had nearly no dry running this morning," he added.

"You have to pick up the pace by around a second and a half and when you've never done it in an F1 car in Monaco, it's a bit harder than anywhere else."

Teammate Sebastian Vettel endured a nightmare qualifying session, placing 18th, and finding himself wishing for a turn in the weather by Sunday.

"My first lap time looked quite promising," said the German. "After that, I feel we should have stuck with the prime tyre as the option was giving up during the first timed lap. I was unable to maintain a good level of grip over the whole track, so I was losing time, especially towards the end of the lap.

"It's a shame, because with my penalty I will be at the back of the grid. So I'm hoping for rain.....lots of rain!"