Speed confident of competitive weekend

The American racer was the quickest of the Toro Rosso trio in practice, posting a promising 17th quickest time despite the difficult track conditions which caused third driver Neel Jani to spin into the gravel in the morning session.

"The out lap this morning felt intimidating as it was very very slippery out there," said Speed. "Then, after I saw Neel go off, I thought 'oh man, this looks like a recipe for disaster.'

"So at first it was difficult to push hard enough to keep the temperature in the tyres. So that was intense.

"Then, this afternoon we made very good progress, our speed looks quite good and I reckon we can be competitive."

Teammate Tonio Liuzzi endured a troubled afternoon when he spun after 14 laps. The Italian was unable to return to the track and admitted he was "pissed off" by his mistake.

"I chose to do just two laps to get a taste of the track this morning," explained Liuzzi, 24th fastest. "This afternoon, I found I had understeer in the high speed corners.

"I messed up my entry to the chicane and that put me wide at the exit and so I spun. That was the end of my day. I'm really pissed off because I lost a lot of track time."