Trulli surprised by qualifying showing

The Toyota driver put on his best qualifying performance of the season and will share the second row of the grid with McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen.

Trulli is still looking for his first points of the season, and the result was a big boost for the Italian, who despite admitting he did not expect to qualify so well, claimed he could have gone even faster.

"I'm delighted because that was an extremely strong qualifying session for both myself and the team," said Trulli. "The car went really well and I put together a very good lap. I didn't expect to be so far up the grid but I could have gone even quicker if I hadn't been blocked by Fisichella.

"We're in good shape for the race and I'm confident about our strategy. The start will be very difficult because the first corner is so tight. We have struggled off the line in recent races so we hope that improves tomorrow. But in the last few races we've definitely shown better potential and better speed so I will push for another good day."

Trulli's happiness was in contrast with teammate Ralf Schumacher's disappointment, the German winding up 14th after struggling for grip.

"This has been a difficult day for me," said Schumacher. "This morning I really struggled for grip and I could not find a balance. Those problems continued into qualifying, meaning that we ended up far away from where we should have been. My team mate had a better afternoon so we will have to look at the data to try to improve for tomorrow.

"It will be a hard race but we have a free choice of strategy and I expect the whole package to work better in the race. This is a good track for racing and there are chances to overtake.

"The circuit is improving all the time and with more hot weather expected on Sunday we should be able to make progress."