Force India duo bemoan lack of grip

"It was a fairly difficult day, to be honest as the grip level was very low and we expected better track conditions," said Sutil after finishing down in 19th position in the afternoon session.

The German, however, is confident his form will improve tomorrow.

"The set-up we had at the test last week was quite good, but today we weren't able to replicate it with the way the track was," he added.

"Sometimes the car had oversteer and then understeer, so it made it very difficult to drive. Otherwise in the end we tried a lot of different things, so for sure we will improve over the weekend."

Despite his problems, Sutil still managed to outpace teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, who was slowest after 37 laps.

Fisichella too complained about the lack of grip after finishing two seconds off the pace.

"Today was OK, although the grip was not as good as we had last week at the test and obviously there was some rain this morning that made it even worse," the Italian said.

"We still have to work on the balance for tomorrow as it was quite inconsistent and at times it was difficult to push, but there's still another practice session tomorrow. We weren't so far away from Q2 in Silverstone last time, so we can certainly try again here."