De la Rosa stars for Arrows

The Spaniard's result is the best qualifying position for an Arrows since Damon Hill qualified fourth at Jerez in 1997.

"I am very, very satisfied by the whole team's work," he said. "We had the one lap at the beginning and we took our chances. It wasn't a particularly good lap compared to my previous lap times today, but then it started raining and it's a bit of a gamble when you arrive into a chicane at 320kph and you don't know how wet it is, so I just took my chances.

"I qualified in the T-car because my race car was still being prepared. We needed to get out very quickly so I took the spare car and it all worked very well. I'm really pleased for the whole team as we've always been up there, but the results have never really materialised.

"We were a little bit lucky with the rain but we've been very unlucky in the past so that's the way it goes sometimes."

His team-mate Jos Verstappen missed out in the initial rush because of a problem with the starter on his car. He had to go out after the conditions had deteriorated.

Team boss Tom Walkinshaw was suitably optimistic about his squad's chances of scoring points tomorrow.

"Both Pedro and Jos did a very good job," he said. "Unfortunately Jos couldn't get out on the track when he should have but he still did a good job when the track was much wetter. With the positions we've got we're in good shape for the race."