Fisichella positive after promising start

The Force India racer posted the ninth fastest time in the afternoon session, finishing less than a half a second off the pace set by Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari.

Fisichella admitted it is still too early to judge the team's form, but the Italian reckons things are looking good.

"The car balance in the afternoon was especially good," said Fisichella. "In the morning we had a lot of understeer, but there was a big difference between today and the test.

"Today there was in general much less grip, more understeer and wheelspin, so this morning I was struggling a little bit. In the afternoon I was happier and we went in the right direction. It's too early to say definitively but it doesn't look too bad."

Adrian Sutil completed a positive start to the weekend for the Silverstone-based squad, the German finishing as tenth fastest.

"Today was not bad," he said. "I think we started quite well, although the track conditions were very different to testing. We just lost a lot of grip from last week so this morning was OK, but this afternoon was even better.

"We put on some new tyres and did some new tyre runs in the second session and the balance was very good. I was quite happy, but then later on the wind increased and although the longer runs were not bad, I was not happy with the balance.

"On the last run of the day it was not as I expected: the wind just changed and I couldn't really react to it so the last runs could have been better for sure, but overall it was an improvement over the last three races. Step by step we are getting better."