Midland unhappy about timing error

The start of the second session was delayed by 10 minutes, with timing screens initially showing no lap time for BMW Sauber's Canadian Jacques Villeneuve or Super Aguri's Franck Montagny.

A red flag warning, which would have stopped the session, was also issued for no visible reason and then immediately rescinded.

When the problem was resolved, Villeneuve was found to have made the cut while others who thought they had gone through to the second phase, such as Red Bull's Christian Klien and Midland's Christijan Albers, were ruled out.

"We will look into what happened with that timing error, because I think it's pretty clear that we suffered the biggest disadvantage as a result of this problem," said Kolles. "But anyway, more importantly, the time gap to the front is shrinking all the time.

"We're still not where we want to be, but you can be sure we will work hard to get there."

Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro was also unhappy at the situation after he lost one qualifying run.

"Inexplicably, we got penalised by that false red flag, which nobody seems to understand," said Monteiro, 20th fastest.

"I really hope the organisers have an explanation for that, because, in the end, it might not be a big deal for them, but it cost me my second run and a potential attempt to break into the second qualifying heat."