Kobayashi determined to score points

The Japanese driver enjoyed his strongest qualifying to date on Saturday, when he took full advantage of the tricky conditions to put his Sauber in ninth position.

Now Kobayashi is aiming for another top ten finish tomorrow.

"I am very happy to have made it into Q3 for the first time," he said. "Last year in Brazil, also in wet conditions, I was close but then I spun on my last lap in Q2. I learnt this lesson. In dry conditions our performance seemed to be rather difficult, therefore I am even happier with my position.

"It is not easy to drive in the wet because of aquaplaning, which obviously will get worse if it rains tomorrow because of the heavy cars for the race start. But I am determined to score points tomorrow."

Team-mate Pedro de la Rosa reckons he could have also made it to Q3 had he not found traffic during most of his flying laps.

The Spaniard will start from 12th.

"It was a quite difficult qualifying because of the changeable conditions. You never knew how much water to expect when braking into a corner," de la Rosa said.

"The car was pretty good in the wet, and I could have made it into the top ten if I just had a single clear lap. But even on my fastest lap I had to overtake two cars in the last sector. However, certainly we can look forward to a very exciting race tomorrow!"