Sato happy not to be on last row

And although the team are now safe, thanks to a takeover by the Magma group, the late deal meant the they lost most of their set-up time on Friday eliminating problems with new cars that hadn't been run until this weekend.

Under the circumstances, Sato was just happy not to be starting on the front row.

"Very pleased with our performance today," said the Japanese driver, who recorded the team's first top ten grid slot in Australia in 2007. "We had a tough start to the weekend yesterday, but it seems as though Melbourne has welcomed us back again now.

"I enjoyed the first qualifying without traction control; the car was a little bit unbalanced in the beginning, but on the third run I picked up more grip and I was happier with the balance and I was able to set a quicker lap.

"I think that we had a very good day and hopefully we shall be able to finish the race tomorrow."

Anthony Davidson will start last on the grid after another frustrating day.

"It was a difficult qualifying session for me," he said afterwards. "With a limited number of laps under my belt going into qualifying it was always going to be hard to put the car on the limit like that and we were still doing set-up all the way through the session itself.

"So it is not the best position to be in, but things will improve and I was up on my last flying lap by about three tenths when the Force India car spun, caused yellow flags and I had to back off. It's just one of those things, but it's a disappointing end to the day."