Liuzzi happy with Toro Rosso progress

The Italian driver, who had already showed promising form in Monaco two weeks ago, repeated his qualifying result with the 12th fastest time ahead of tomorrow's race in Montreal.

Liuzzi, who retired from the Monte Carlo race, is now hoping for reliability to score a strong result.

"Another good qualifying after Monaco, which confirms the car is getting better and better," said Liuzzi. "On my final run I drifted just a little wide at corner 7 and without that it's just possible I might have made it into Q3 and the top ten.

"I am in positive mood and maybe I am getting repetitive with my comments at every race, but we really are improving. Now we have to see how our reliability will be in the race as we have had some trouble with the gearbox during this weekend. So fingers crossed."

Teammate Scott Speed qualified in 16th position as Toro Rosso got both their drivers through to Q2 for the first time this year. It was also the first time the American made it to the second segment.

"I think I should have done that a few times this season but I always seemed to be unlucky with traffic," Speed said. "Today I didn't have any traffic which is why I got through.

"The car felt good in the first part of the session, but then as the track rubbered in I picked up quite a lot of understeer, which we were not able to fix by adjusting the wing. Tomorrow I hope for some points but that might require a few people to break down."