Rosberg praises Williams's progress

"It's been a few races since we managed to get into the top ten, so this is a good result for us," said Rosberg, who had not qualified in the top ten since the Canadian Grand Prix.

The German finished as ninth quickest and is now hopeful of scoring his first points since Turkey.

"We'd obviously always want to do better, but this shows we've made a step in the right direction and that's satisfying," he added.

"We had a better understanding of where we had to improve, so we've made those changes which gave us a more competitive car today.

"We have a good strategy for the race so anything is possible. Today has been positive which gives me hope for points tomorrow."

Kazuki Nakajima completed a good day for Williams, despite missing the top ten.

"It was a good qualifying for us as both cars are close in the midfield," said the Japanese. "It was a shame to miss out on Q3, but actually P11 is not a bad place to start the race from because we can select our fuel level.

"I'll also be on the clean side of the track tomorrow so, all in all, it was a positive qualifying session for us."