Kobayashi says 10th was the maximum

The Japanese driver, who was disqualified from the season-opening race in Australia after finishing in eighth, will start tomorrow's race from tenth.

Kobayashi said he was hoping to improve his position thanks to a fresh set of soft tyres in Q3, but claimed there was nothing else in the car.

"I'm quite happy with today's qualifying," he said. "Of course I was hoping to improve a bit on my very last run, especially as, unlike in Melbourne, I had a set of new soft tyres left. But I think there wasn't more to get out of the car today.

"Nevertheless the team had done a very good job improving it after some problems yesterday. We found some things overnight, in free practice this morning we still struggled a bit, but then we knew what to do.

"It was here in Sepang last year where I reached Q3 for the first time in my F1 career. The race will be very interesting, especially in terms of tyre degradation in the heat. I am certainly aiming for points."

Team-mate Sergio Perez, on the other hand, was disappointed with his 16th position, the rookie admitting he was hoping to be closer to the top.

"I am a bit disappointed because we had the potential for Q3 if I had got my final lap right," said the Mexican. "On my second run in Q2 I was caught in traffic on my out lap. On the flying lap sectors one and two were fine, but in sector three I had no front grip and the car was understeering a lot.

"Now I hope we have a good race strategy as I'm still aiming for points which, of course, is not easy from where I am starting. It will be a demanding race, but I'm looking forward to the challenge."