Fisichella encouraged despite missing cut

The Italian driver finished in 17th position, and although he admitted he was disappointed not to make it to Q2, Fisichella was upbeat about Force India's form.

"Just five hundredths away from Q2, it was very close," said Fisichella. "I am a little disappointed with not getting there, but I did my best and did a fantastic lap.

"Let's say it's very encouraging - just five hundredths from the top 16 and Q2, and just under a second from the quickest lap time of that session - it is very promising for the future.

"The team has done a fantastic job so far. Of course we have a lot of work to do but looking forward we are going in the right direction, which is just great."

Adrian Sutil was not so pleased as his teamamte after failing to escape the final row of the grid.

The German has struggled for pace this weekend and he confessed he was not expecting a great result.

"It was not a good qualifying, but to be honest I was expecting this as we had not had a great practice in the morning," he said. "We had problems again trying to get the soft tyres to work, my car is just not behaving how it should be with them and I even tried a hard set.

"The car felt much better but for sure with them I can't race the other cars. In the race and over longer runs I think we are better. In Melbourne it was OK and I have a good feeling there is more in the car."