Kovalainen aims to beat Sauber in race

The Lotus star briefly got up to 18th in Q1, in front of the Sauber, before Kobayashi improved and pipped him by 0.2 seconds.

Kovalainen said being so close to beating an established team had inspired him to dig even deeper.

"I've felt like I've done a few good qualifying laps this year, but this one was really good," he said. "I've had a decent balance all weekend, and yesterday I didn't have any problems, so I could find a good set-up and had the confidence to push.

"We just need to find a little bit more to really take the fight to the guys in front, but tomorrow I think we can race them, I think we can have a go.

"I thought I had Kamui for a while, but he just got in front at the end, but you always find a little bit more when you think you can get the guy ahead and that shows how far we've come. Today shows we're making progress all the time - we were only two tenths away from Sauber today which is just great for the whole team."