Speed vows to attack in the race

The Toro Rosso driver, who lost his first Formula One point in Australia after a penalty, missed the first cut of today's session after claiming he had been held up by traffic.

Speed finished in 18th position, but the American has vowed to attack in the race.

"I would have easily made it into the second part of the session but I got held up at the chicane by someone trying to get a good lap," said Speed. "It's unfortunate but that's the nature of qualifying this year and we have to deal with it. The team is improving every day, as the whole set up was new at the start of the year.

"Now we have three races under our belt and are back close to home the improvement in the way everyone is working is clear to see and there's still more to come. The race? I'm going to be aggressive. I've got nothing to lose."

His teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi said there was nothing he could do to go faster, the Italian having to settle for 16th.

"The car was responding very well and we had sorted out all the problems we came up against yesterday," he said. "But this afternoon, the others seemed to be flying, but we had already reached our maximum. It was a reasonable result but we still need to improve our qualifying pace.

"Tomorrow should be better as we seem to be stronger over a longer distance."