Sato laments timing mistake

Japanese Takuma Sato was disappointed after an error timing his runs during qualifying meant he was unable to complete his final flying lap

The Super Aguri driver, who scored his team's maiden point at the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago, had to settle for a low 21st position after he could only complete two of the three planned runs because of a mistake in the team's timing plan.

"Going into qualifying, the first outing was just a warm up and then in the second outing I caught some traffic, so I wasn't able to do a relevant quick lap," said Sato.

"Then when I came back to the pit to prepare for the last qualifying lap our timing plan was incorrect and we couldn't make it across the line for a third run, which was very disappointing."

Teammate Anthony Davidson enjoyed a better day, but he too was unable to make it past the first session.

The Briton will start from 17th position.

"As was the case for everybody, we experienced really difficult conditions today," said Davidson. "The qualifying session was quite frantic and I feel that my side of the garage did a great job in getting the car out there in a good space.

"It was unfortunate to miss out on not getting a final run in as we wanted to try and complete three runs because it looked like it could rain at any moment. However, I don't feel anyone did anything wrong, so I'm happy with what we did, it was just bad luck."