Coulthard not surprised to miss top ten

The Red Bull driver made the first cut in his Ferrari-powered car but then struggled with the handling of the RB2 in the second part of the session.

Coulthard missed the top ten positions and did not take part in the final 20 minutes of qualifying.

He had to settle for 13th place.

"It was obviously pretty tricky in the first 15 minutes when all the cars were queuing up after the session was re-started," he said. "In the second one, the car had too much oversteer and so, to be honest, I wasn't surprised that I didn't get through to the final ten.

"I wasn't comfortable with the car's balance and so couldn't attack the corners as I would have liked. Christian did well to get through though."

Coulthard's teammate Christian Klien enjoyed a better session, finishing in eighth place despite the tricky new qualifying system.

"The new format is really challenging - there's a lot more pressure on you with the different heats," Klien said. "The first and second parts were pretty good and I was comfortable with the car's performance. The difficult part was the third one when I had more fuel in the car along and new tyres.

"The car's balance was altered and the heavier fuel load meant the braking points changed too."