Minardi sacrifices qualifying for garage time

Team boss Paul Stoddart told journalists afterwards that he had checked the strategy out with the sport's governing body and that there was nothing in the new rules preventing such an action.

This means that Wilson and Verstappen will be forced to start tomorrow's race from the pitlane, but also means that the team can continue to work on the cars overnight.

"Today's qualifying session was all about strategy for us," said Minardi team boss Paul Stoddart. "With limited testing before the season began and the sort of reliability issues that are to be expected without the benefit of a winter testing programme, the decision was taken to start both cars from the back of the grid.

"This allows the team's mechanics to give us our best possible opportunity to finish the race, but perhaps most importantly, to allow us the latest possible opportunity of assessing the likely race conditions, and thus planning our strategy accordingly."

Wilson, who was denied the opportunity to complete his first ever flying F1 qualifying lap, was completely behind the idea: "It is a strategy we chose to follow. We knew the likelihood was that we would qualify toward the back of the grid anyway."