Hamilton vows to attack in the race

The McLaren driver, the winner of last year's race in Melbourne, was unable to even complete a lap in Q2 after being hit by a gearbox problem.

Hamilton will start from 15th place tomorrow, bu the Briton says he will do everything he can to score points.

"Something broke on the rear of my car on my second flying lap in Q1," said Hamilton. "I just lost all drive in the gearbox and couldn't continue.

"The team will look at the problem tonight and I'm determined to drive an attacking race - we'll have some fun from 15th tomorrow."

McLaren's problems were confirmed in today's session, with Hamilton never among the quickest and team-mate Heikki Kovalainen managing the 14th fastest time.

Kovalainen admitted his car was just lacking grip.

"The car's overall balance was good, we just don't have enough grip at the moment to make the best use of it," said the Finn.

"The team has worked so hard, and we have made progress over the past few weeks so it gives us all a lot of hope that we will get back to the front before too long."

Team boss Martin Whitmarsh said McLaren had made progress over the last weeks, but conceded it was not enough.

"Both drivers did a good job, though, in circumstances that were difficult for us all. The reality is that we've made progress in the past couple of weeks, but clearly not enough.

"There's more to come, though, and everyone at Woking, Brixworth and Stuttgart is working as hard as they can to turn things around in the shortest time possible."