Fisichella frustrated by poor qualifying

The Italian, who was set to get a five-place penalty for changing his gearbox before qualifying, finished at the bottom of the times, over half a second behind Force India teammate Adrian Sutil.

Fisichella said he had been held up by Honda's Rubens Barrichello during his final run, in an incident that the stewards are investigating.

"It was a disappointing qualifying session and, in fact, whole day," said Fisichella. "This morning I had a problem with the gearbox and we had to change it, so I would have been penalised five places anyway, but then it was only ready about 14:05 so we didn't have enough time to do three runs.

"My first run was not great, but the second was better but then I lost the chance to do a quick lap as I got caught behind Barrichello just after the swimming pool as he was slowing down. Very very frustrating."

Sutil completed a poor day for Force India, qualifying in 19th position.

"I felt my first laps were quite good, but then I had to pass a couple of cars in the first sector," he said. "It is really only two tenths or so, but from that point on it's difficult to get in the rhythm.

"We had planned to do two laps but you never know whether there will be traffic so we left some margin with the fuel and I could stay out for a few more laps to get some better ones in.

"There were some positives though: at least we have got the tyre problem fixed and they are working well now."