Coulthard laments missing cut

"Under normal conditions, I think I would have made it through to the next session today," said Coulthard. who will start from the a disappointing 17th position.

"My first run was a little bit messy, but on my second, a Super Aguri went off the circuit in Turn eight in front of me, so I had to lift off.

"As a result I dropped half a second and couldn't win it back through the rest of the lap. I tried to push again on the next lap, but by then my tyres had lost performance, it's just one of things unfortunately."

Coulthard's Red Bull teammate Christian Klien enjoyed a much better day, the Austrian finishing as 11th quickest.

Klien will start from the 10th, however, following Ralf Schumacher's engine change.

"I'm very happy about the qualifying result," said Klien. "Every time I went out on new tyres today I improved. We changed the front wing a little, as there was some understeer when we tried to push harder and by the end I had quite good balance.

"I think we got everything out of the car that we could. My team did a good job and supported me well, and hopefully we can have a good race from this position tomorrow."