Coulthard surprised by strong qualifying

The Red Bull Racing driver will start form fifth position, his best qualifying result since the 2005 Australian Grand Prix, where he had also qualified in fifth.

Coulthard said he had performed as in all previous qualifying sessions this year, and so was surprised by his position.

"Fifth is a great position to start from tomorrow, it's a while since I've been in the top ten," said the Scot. "I'm a little bit surprised to be honest, I drove in exactly the same way as I have in the previous few qualifying sessions, but for some reason there are more cars are behind me here.

"I'm not complaining, the car obviously suits this track. The weather's due to be wet and a bit difficult tomorrow, but it can't be anywhere near as difficult as it was in Fuji last weekend. Starting in the points is obviously better than having to fight our way there from further back, as we did last week.

"I'm happy - I'm happy for my guys who work directly on my car and for the team as a whole. Their work's been overshadowed a little with some of the reliability problems we've had this year, so I'm pleased for them."

Teammate Mark Webber boosted Red Bull's chances of overhauling Williams in the standings by qualifying in seventh.

Both Nico Rosberg and Alex Wurz, whose team are five points ahead of Red Bull, qualified outside the top ten.

"We were concentrating on our strategy ahead of the race tomorrow and the wet weather that is forecast," said Webber.

"The team performed very well today and it's nice timing to get both cars in to the top ten at this stage of the championship, as it puts a little bit of pressure on Williams in our battle for fourth place.

"This also gives confidence to the team going into next season; I'm looking forward to tomorrow."