Final qualifying will be tough, admits Kimi

Raikkonen was third on track in Friday's first qualifying session, but could only manage the 12th fastest time as many of the later runners benefited from improved track conditions. He was also unhappy with the set-up of his car in the dusty conditions.

"We went through a lot of work during practice this morning, but we still have some way to go with the set-up of the car, which we will look at before tomorrow's qualifying session," said Raikkonen. "There is no doubt that the track was very dirty particularly after the support race [practice] just before the start of the session, which affected the people who were out early today.

"As a result I will start midway through tomorrow's session, which is not ideal, but at least it will be the same for most of the other main championship contenders, so we will see what happens."

The Finn's team-mate David Coulthard faired much better, qualifying fourth on the day he was confirmed as a McLaren driver for 2004.

"I'm sure we can work to find more speed to further improve the package overnight," he said. "I was a bit tentative going into turn one on my qualifying lap as the circuit had a bit more grip than previously, but apart from that it was an OK lap. All in all a good start to the weekend."