Relieved Coulthard Hopes to Move Up

Coulthard's Red Bull Racing car suffered pretty serious damage in the crash, after he was hit from behind by Jacques Villeneuve's Sauber and then spun into Ralf Schumacher's Toyota - and his first lap in the repaired car was for qualifying itself.

So considering the factors that were working against him, Coulthard breathed a sigh of relief as he set the eighth fastest time - and will obviously move up another place thanks to Montoya's back of the grid penalty.

"Not bad," he said. "That was quite a tidy lap considering all the new parts that had to be fitted following this morning's incident with Montoya.

"It can be difficult to start from the middle of the grid here, so I hope to move up the starting order tomorrow."

Red Bull's technical director Gunther Steiner believed that Coulthard's Formula One experience had been key to him doing such a good job in qualifying.

"David's mechanics did an excellent job to get his car ready after this morning's incident. It can sometimes be hard for a driver to go straight back out and attack following an accident, but David's experience behind the wheel meant he was not affected. He quickly got a good feeling in the car and there were no problems at all."

Coulthard's teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi had a less happy time in qualifying as he could only manage the 13th quickest time, having had the misfortune to be the first driver out on the track as a result of his spin in the Spanish Grand Prix.

"Unfortunately it was not so good being first out on the track," said the Italian. "The road surface was really, really dirty and it was quite difficult.

"I'm not so happy with my time and think it was quite slow compared to those that I set this morning. For sure, I'll be looking to make up some positions on the grid tomorrow."