Coulthard Aims for Strong End to Season

The Scot, who finished in sixth in Japan last weekend, benefited from being one of the last men to run in qualifying to post a strong seventh fastest time.

Coulthard complained about the lack of grip on the track but was still pleased with his effort and left confident for tomorrow.

"The car's brake balance seemed quite predictable this morning, although we put more aero in the car for qualifying, to counterbalance the understeer," said Coulthard. "Despite that, I didn't get it quite right going into turn one on my qualifying lap, as I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

"The rear of the car was a little bit nervous on the warm up lap, so I took caution through turn one and then built up my speed from there. The Porsche Supercup had run before, which meant the track was a little slippery, but it was the same for everyone and, overall, I'm quite happy with the time I set.

"Apart from the first sector, the rest of the lap was tidy enough, so hopefully we're going to have a good race tomorrow and get some points. That's how we started the season so that's how we want to finish it."

Christian Klien was unable to repeat his strong qualifying performances of late and had to settle for 14th position. The Austrian had started fourth in Brazil and sixth in Japan.

"I think the track had changed quite a lot for qualifying from how it was this morning," he said. "The car's balance seemed out and there was a lot of oversteer, as soon as I turned in there was oversteer, meaning it wasn't possible to do a clean lap.

"I'm not happy with my performance at all and from this position it's going to be hard to do too much in the race tomorrow. But, I'll be pushing hard and doing all I can to get more points for the team."