Thumbs up for the MP4-19B

Coulthard was nearly three tenths of a second off the pace of polesitter Fernando Alonso, a margin almost unheard of with the MP4-19B's predecessor.

"I am pleased with the result; it shows that we have made progress with the car and I am happy that the hard work of the whole team is leading us in the right direction," said the Scot. "We still have to wait for the race tomorrow to see how we compare with the fuel strategies of the opposition, but we have improved significantly. The car is tricky to drive, but it's doing the lap times so I don't mind."

Raikkonen made several errors on his flying lap which dropped him to ninth. But despite his lowly position relative to his team-mate, the Finn is delighted with his new machine.

"Unfortunately I pushed too hard at the first corner and got a bit of understeer, which cost me some time," he said. "I tried hard to compensate for this on the rest of the lap, which resulted in a few minor mistakes costing me even more time. I think it's obvious to everybody that the car shows potential, and I feel very confident when driving it. I'm sure the car's competitiveness will become clear tomorrow."

Team boss Ron Dennis commended his squad and hopes the results will follow. "David's excellent grid position is a good reward for a lot of effort from the whole team," he said. "Both our chassis and engine performance have taken a positive step forward which hopefully will manifest itself in better results for the rest of the season. Kimi's enthusiasm got the better of him, but I'm sure both drivers will have the potential for a good race result tomorrow."