Minardi Pair Hoping for Stronger Race

Albers suffered from understeer on his qualifying lap as he made several mistakes, while Doornbos lost time in the final sector with an unknown problem.

"It wasn't a good qualifying session for us, and the track had changed a lot from this morning," said Albers. "We had an understeering car, and I also made several mistakes on the qualifying lap, so I'm not really happy with myself.

"Anyway, tomorrow is race day, and we'll work hard between now and then to try and achieve the best possible result."

Doornbos added: "It's been a busy day in the Minardi garage, as we had a gearbox problem this morning that reduced our available track time. Even with only a few laps running, though, I was able to find a good balance in the car, so we felt we were in good shape for qualifying.

"The lap started out well, as the initial sector time was good, but then I lost almost a second in the last sector, so we'll have to find out what caused that. We'll check the data and aim to make up for today with a good performance in the race tomorrow."