Speed encouraged for the race

The American driver, who yesterday impressed in practice by setting the third quickest time, did not come close to repeating such a feat, but still put on a strong showing, qualifying in 15th position ahead of the Red Bull car of David Coulthard.

"I was definitely not expecting to repeat yesterday's performance. We like to keep our feet on the ground here at Toro Rosso," said Speed. "I had a good run in Q1 and then the track conditions started to be a bit more difficult for our car as it got more rubbered in.

"We struggled a lot with the front end, trying to get the front to grip in the slow speed corners and that problem was worse in Q2. The car balance in the high speed corners is good and quite driveable and it is easy to produce a consistent performance with what I think should be a good race car."

Speed's teammate Tonio Liuzzi failed to make it past the first segment, the Italian having to settle for 17th position after problems with the traffic.

"The main problem I had today was traffic and I had been hoping to be much higher up the order," said Liuzzi. "We didn't get the right slot and paid the consequences. There was a big mess in the pit lane as our neighbours were coming in and out of their garage, causing a traffic jam.

"But my main problem was the Spyker ahead of me on the track that made a mistake a cost me a lot of time. I was three and a half tenths up on my first run time but I lost the chance of going into Q2 because of that."