McLaren not surprised by qualifying form

The world champion ended the session 13th, one place ahead of his team-mate, but afterwards he told the BBC that his position was to be expected given the current competitiveness of the McLaren MP4-24.

"Nothing has changed since the last race so we knew this around the position we would be," he said.

"The car doesn't feel terrible, it just feels like I'm not able to carry the speed through the corners."

Asked if there were any positives to draw from the session, he replied: "We are not dead last, I have no gearbox problems, so we can look forward."

Kovalainen added that he was disappointed but not surprised to be starting the race 14th.

"We knew that it was going to be very difficult to get in to the top ten. We tried our maximum, the fact is that we just don't have enough performance at the moment to get there.

"Otherwise I think we are working fine. The team has done a great job again, we've improved little-by-little but obviously not enough."

Kovalainen also denied that the off-track storm surrounding the team provoked by the fall-out from Hamilton's Australian GP disqualification and the suspension of the team's sporting director Dave Ryan had affected McLaren's performance.

"I don't think so," he said. "Obviously a lot of things have been going on this weekend. But I think the team has really kept the focus very well, it hasn't distracted from our job, our business here.

"We have been working on the set-up, working on the practice sessions, and preparing for every session like we always do and it hasn't made any difference to that and I think it is a good effort from the team under difficult circumstances."