No complaints from Jordan

The Italian came within less than a tenth of a second of snatching fifth position away from Kimi Raikkonen, but was just as happy to line up sixth on the grid next to the McLaren.

"Fantastic. I am very pleased," he said. "This morning I didn't believe we could be sixth, although I was confident that we could be in the top 10. The team did a good job and the step forward with the engine was an especially good help."

Jordan's race and test director Gary Anderson was full of praise following Fisichella's performance.

"That was pretty good, I have no complaints," he said. "At the end we thought fifth was possible, but we didn't quite get the lap in. I'm very pleased with Giancarlo, it's good to see him back. He's the top Bridgestone runner on the grid after the Ferraris at the front. It's very competitive in the middle and Takuma [Sato] also did a good job."

Sato looked on course for a top 10 position, but lost out when others improved with their final efforts and he didn't. But 12th represents his best qualifying performance of the season, which was a commendable achievement after he lost valuable set-up time in practice with a broken exhaust.