Kubica concedes title chances nearly gone

The BMW Sauber driver is 12 points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton with two races to go, and the Pole will need to outscore the Briton by at least three points tomorrow to have a chance of fighting for the title at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

His prospects, however, look dim after Kubica struggled with balance problems in qualifying on Saturday, meaning he will start 10 places behind Hamilton.

Kubica, who had failed to make the top ten just once before this year, admitted it was one of the worst moments to suffer problems.

"Normally always you are quite disappointed when you cannot find the balance of the car, especially at the end of the season that has been quite important for me," Kubica told reporters.

"Even though I have the opportunity to fight for the world championship, it is not the best moment to be 11th on the grid.

"But we have been in a worse situation before, and we have been in a better situation as well. So we have to take it. The worst thing is that for tomorrow there is nothing that we can do, so I am expecting quite a difficult race there. That is all."

Kubica said the team tried some changes to the car's set-up ahead of qualifying, but the decision backfired and the Pole said the changes just made the car worse.

"The car balance was not the best one. Overall we were struggling with the grip this weekend and we did some changes for qualifying," he added.

"It looks like they made the situation even worse, so it has a negative effect on the balance rather than a positive. We were just not quick enough."

The BMW Sauber driver admitted that even before today's problems, he knew his title chances were small.

"I am always fighting for the maximum amount of points, and I think already before this Grand Prix we knew that some circumstances had to happen to Lewis Hamilton and Felipe (Massa), and additionally I had to score many points," he said.

"We were not scoring a lot of points lately, so to score 13 points or more in two races was going to be a big challenge.

"Additionally in this qualifying, all weekend we have been struggling and it does not help the situation. And from now on it does not look great."