Fisichella admits he was expecting more

The Italian, whose Force India team were confident of making it to Q2 all year long, will start the race from 17th position after missing the first cut.

The result left Fisichella disappointed, but he is still hopeful of more progress from the team.

"Seventeenth, just one place behind the top 16 and Q2, so it is a bit disappointing considering the weekend so far," said the Italian. "In the last part of my quickest lap, there was a yellow flag but there was also a lot of graining on the tyres and I lost at least three tenths.

"But we know we are there and are improving. The team has made a good effort so far - we know we still have a lot of work to do but we are going in the right direction."

Teammate Adrian Sutil completed a disappointing day for Force India, the German finishing down in 19th position after struggling with his car's handling.

"It was not such an easy qualifying as the track conditions were quite different to this morning," Sutil said. "The general grip level was lower and I struggled with some understeer with new tyres, but the second run was OK, even though the balance was not great.

"On my last lap I felt it was going well until the second sector but when I got to the quick left-right chicane in sector three I got a lot of understeer and went wide on the exit. The car jumped and I couldn't control it and spun.

"It is a bit sad as maybe I could have caught Bourdais, but we were very close to second qualifying and maybe in Malaysia we could still make that little step. But we are there and are closer than last year, which is a little success already."