Klien elated with qualifying showing

The Hispania driver, standing in for the unwell Sakon Yamamoto, outqualified team-mate Bruno Senna by 1.3 seconds on his way to 22nd place on the grid.

"It's great to be back and I am very happy about my qualifying result from today," said Klien, who has not raced in Formula 1 since 2006.

"I was a bit nervous before the session but then I was completely concentrated on doing the best lap time possible.

"I could improve constantly during the weekend and we achieved our aim completely. We are ready for anything that can happen tomorrow, and I hope to achieve a good result again."

Senna, who spun during the session, admitted his car was not easy to drive and was left hoping for better tomorrow.

"It was hard to drive today," he said. "In the third practice, we had understeer and in qualifying, it changed to oversteer. But tomorrow is another day and we hope that the track conditions will improve again.

"We are trying to do better tomorrow and I am looking forward to my first night race."