Coulthard Rues Error and Lack of Pace

Coulthard had been too cautious under braking for the Tamburello chicane in first qualifying and then he lost time getting sideways over the kerbs at the same place in the second session to edge out new teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi by just one grid place. The pair start 14th and 15th thanks to Felipe Massa being moved down the order after an engine change.

"The lap started very badly. I lost the back end into turn one so I was all over the kerbs," said Coulthard, who is the only driver other than Fernando Alonso to have scored points in all three races so far this year.

"I managed to pick up around the rest of the lap, but ultimately it wouldn't have made a big difference in terms of where we qualified. The others are ahead on pace and we were 0.6 of a second down on Villeneuve, so it's just a question now of what luck we have in the race in terms of other people dropping out, otherwise it's probably going to be quite a quiet one.

"Being out on the track early was more of a disadvantage than in other sessions, because it was wet at the start and absolutely dry at the end - but that's the price you pay for being slow in the first session."

Although Liuzzi had been unable to leapfrog his teammate on the grid, he was delighted with his performance as he qualified for his first Grand Prix.

"Yesterday, I had the disadvantage of being first man out on track when the conditions were at their worst," said the Italian. "So, at least today I got a decent lap and I am happy with my performance.

"I'm very excited to start my first ever Formula 1 race this afternoon. It will be much longer than any race I have done in the past, so it will be interesting to see how I cope with that side of things."