Jordan optimistic despite poor qualifying

The team was hampered in Saturday's session by the decision to run hard compound Bridgestone tyres, which give less grip over a one-lap qualifying run than the softer tyres. However Fisichella believes that running the tyre could prove beneficial in Sunday's race.

"The lap was okay," said Fisichella. "We have chosen to go with the hard tyres which maybe is not fantastic for qualifying but it could be good for tomorrow. So I hope the race will be a better reflection of our potential."

The Italian's rookie team-mate Ralph Firman qualified 20th and last, but was still relatively upbeat about the weekend: "The circuit has changed a lot from this morning with the temperature going up, and as a result I experienced a lot of oversteer in the last sector. But I'm reasonably satisfied with that and hopefully tomorrow will be good."

Gary Anderson, Jordan's director of race and test engineering, had hoped the team would be able to crack the top ten, but reckoned that the high temperature during the session upset the balance of the EJ13. He said: "I thought we would be a little bit better in qualifying than we are. I thought we might be able to crack the top ten but we didn't quite make it. The temperature affects the balance and the grip and we never really got on top of it. Let's wait and see tomorrow."