Montoya expects engine change

The McLaren driver finished down in 13th position in the final session, over two seconds behind pace-setter Anthony Davidson.

Montoya claimed his Mercedes engine was lacking power, although the team did not find any problems with it.

"Bad," said Montoya of his session. "The engine on my side just does not pull. We don't know what is going on but running on the same revs I am about seven kilometers per hour down on Kimi with the same aero package.

"Unless we want to finish about 10th or 12th then we should think about changing it (the engine) to be honest. But it is not my call," added Montoya, who expects his team to be off the pace over a single lap.

"I think we will be okay in the race but on one lap we are struggling."

If Montoya changes his engine he will lose 10 grid positions as a penalty.

The British squad, who struggled with reliability problems during the early part of winter testing, endured a troubled start to their season, with Kimi Raikkonen stopping on track during the afternoon session with an electrical problem.

The Finn finished just ahead of Montoya in 12th.

"In the first session we only did one run and then in the second session we were doing some tyre comparisons but unfortunately we stopped so we could not finish. That is how it is," Raikkonen said.