Kubica focused on race set-up

The Pole claimed his first front row start in Australia last weekend, but could not match the McLarens on race day.

This time he said he preferred to lose some qualifying pace in favour of a better Sunday run.

"I'm quite happy with today's performance, although just a little was missing for me to be on the second row of the grid," Kubica said.

"The unpredictable weather brought an additional thrill to the qualifying. With the set-up I chose, I knew that qualifying would not be easy for me, but over the weekend we have put a lot of effort into the race preparation so I'm optimistic for tomorrow."

Kubica's teammate Nick Heidfeld was one place behind in seventh, and was extremely critical of the leading drivers for blocking him on their in-laps, having completed their qualifying runs while the session was still underway.

Technical director Willy Rampf agreed that this had been critical as just two tenths of a second covered the McLarens, Jarno Trulli's Toyota and the two BMWs in third to seventh positions.

"In Q3 everything was very tight and our drivers just missed by the blink of an eye to be in better positions," Rampf said.

"Nick lost time on his final run because he didn't have a clear track, as there were several cars in the way driving slowly on their in-laps."