Toro Rosso duo hopeful of stronger race

Italian Liuzzi made the first cut of the new knockout qualifying system and finished in a promising 15th position in the V10-powered car.

The performance was a big leap from what the Minardi team used to achieve last season before Red Bull took over the struggling outfit.

"It's been a complicated and difficult qualifying as the track conditions were totally different to yesterday," said Liuzzi. "This meant we made many changes to the set-up as the car handled very differently.

"Qualifying was a bit chaotic with the red flag, but although I'm a bit disappointed not to make it through to the final part of the session, we have planned a fairly conservative strategy for the race, which is the only thing that matters.

"I definitely like this qualifying format. It's already been exciting today."

Teammate Scott Speed will start from 16th place after finishing with a time more than a second slower than Liuzzi. The American, making his Grand Prix debut this weekend, is also confident their race strategy will help them move forward on Sunday.

"I'm used to qualifying with all the other cars out on track at the same time, but all the same it did feel a bit different, this being Formula One, with a bit more pressure," Speed said. "The first part of the session went very well, although I got a bit held up at the end of it by Jacques.

"Then, in the second part, the tyre temperatures were not quite where we wanted them and I got pulled in to the weighbridge, which meant I didn't get a second run in. So, maybe we could have gone a bit quicker in the second part, but now we can play with the fuel load, which puts us in a strong position for the race."