Delighted Sato targets Ferrari

At one point the Japanese driver was on his way to stealing provisional pole from Michael Schumacher after he set the quickest time of the qualifying session following the first two sectors.

But the BAR was no match for the Ferrari in the final sector and he duly slotted into second place behind Schumacher only to be knocked down to third after Rubens Barrichello's flying run.

Yet Sato remains happy with his position, the third time he has made the top three in qualifying this year. "It's a great result for the team today," he said. "Considering I lost most of a practice session yesterday I'm really pleased for myself to be back on the pace. The Ferraris are always strong on race pace, but we have shown consistency on the long runs. We're hoping we can get close to them tomorrow afternoon."

Team-mate Jenson Button will line up alongside Sato on the grid tomorrow, but the Briton was disappointed with his lap after he made the wrong decision on the set-up of his car.

"We changed the car before the final qualifying run for what we thought would be the better," he said. "But I had huge amounts of oversteer. Not good at all."

Despite failing to make the front row team boss David Richards is confident both his drivers can challenge the Ferraris come tomorrow.

"We're obviously disappointed not to be on the front row, but I'm sure we can have a good race," he said. "It was difficult with the wind picking up and dropping off. Both drivers drove good laps, although Jenson had trouble with oversteer. There is a good chance we can fight for victory tomorrow, though."