Heidfeld disappointed despite top ten

The German driver had topped the times in this morning's practice session, finishing nearly a second ahead of teammate Jacques Villeneuve, second quickest.

Heidfeld, however, was unable to use a new set of tyres for his final flying lap and had to settle for eighth position.

"I am disappointed," admitted Heidfeld. "After our very strong showing this  morning as well as in the first two parts of qualifying, a significantly better result was possible today.

"But in the end I didn't have a fresh set of tyres available so eighth was the best I could expect."

Canadian Villeneuve was ninth fastest, but the former world champion will lose ten grid positions following an engine change before today's qualifying.

Villeneuve was still optimistic of a strong race.

"Since I will lose 10 positions because of needing a  new engine, we concentrated wholly on race strategy in the third part of  qualifying, running a representative fuel load," he said. "I just did some laps to make  sure I got a time and with Trulli not running I finished ninth, which means I  will start from 19th position.

"The race pace that we have is very good so I am  still optimistic for tomorrow as Felipe Massa proved in Malaysia what it is  possible to do even when you have to start towards the back of the grid."