Sutil laments costly practice accident

The Force India driver caused serious damage to his car in the morning and his mechanics were still working on it when qualifying began.

Although they finished before the end of the session, Sutil managed just one flying run and finished down in 18th.

"For us, unfortunately the qualifying wasn't as good as we hoped," said Sutil. "In the morning I just made a mistake and went off line and lost some grip and went into the barriers.

"The guys did a great job to get the car ready but there was only enough time at the end of the session for two flying laps. All we needed was an extra couple of tenths that would have helped us go into Q2 so without the accident I think we could have been quite good.

"At least in 18th we have a couple of cars behind us but it's going to be a tough race."

Giancarlo Fisichella also had a disappointing day after finishing down in 17th position, the Italian bemoaning the lack of grip.

"Personally we knew it was going to be difficult today with the low grip but to just be one or two tenths from getting into Q2 is a little bit frustrating," he said.

"The only problem was the lack of grip and it was difficult to do a good lap. It's going to be a tough race, but I would still like to get a good finish to take us over the mid-season break and into the next race where we have a lot more development to come."