Red Bull Struggling, Says Coulthard

The Scot driver was 12th quickest, nearly 2.5 seconds off the pace as his Cosworth-powered team continued having problems to extract more speed from their cars.

Coulthard said he had done his best by finishing in front of the two BAR-Hondas.

"We're struggling a bit here," admitted Coulthard. "In Monte Carlo we had the advantage of knowing the circuit very well; but we'll do what we can. The track conditions had changed since the morning. It seemed dirtier following the Porsche Supercup race and the track temperature had increased.

"I think it got up to 47 °C, which can affect the car's balance. We dropped some aero out of the car after this morning's practice, but I still had some oversteer and locked up in to the hairpin.

"It's always a compromise when you have fuel on board and such high temperatures. I don't think we could have done anymore than be in front of the two BARs."

Coulthard outqualified his teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, who looked set to finish in front of the Scot until he made a mistake at the final chicane on his flying lap. The rookie finished in 14th position.

"The balance of the car felt very good until the last section when I had a problem braking into the chicane," he said. "The rear locked and I lost a huge amount of time there, which killed my qualifying session a little.

"I'm disappointed, until that point we'd done a very good lap."