Trulli surprised by strong performance

"That was a great qualifying session so I'm really pleased both for myself and for the team to get two cars into the top ten," said the Toyota driver, who will start from fourth thanks to Lewis Hamilton's 10-place penalty.

"I didn't expect to be so quick but I've been building up to this all weekend. The car was well balanced and everything went well, particularly my last lap.

"Early in Q3 I spun because I was pushing hard to find the limit with fuel on board. I didn't panic and I just changed a few settings for the last run. We'll have to see how it goes tomorrow but I have high hopes because so far I've felt even more confident driving the car in race trim.

"Clearly this is a particularly important weekend for us as we are remembering Ove Andersson and everything he has done for us. This is a good start and we want to dedicate everything we achieve this weekend to him," added the Italian, who had missed the top ten in qualifying in the last race in Canada.

Timo Glock was also happy with his performance after qualifying in 10th position, although the German admitted he was still struggling with his tyres.

"Following our problems in practice yesterday, we are happy with this result," he said. "But I am still having a hard time with the tyres. On low fuel we had a competitive pace that was similar to Jarno but on high fuel loads in Q3 I struggled a bit.

"So we still have to work to find a better way to manage the tyres for tomorrow. Still, this is definitely a positive result today.

"We have both cars in the top ten which is good for the team who have been working very hard at the track and back in Cologne. Hopefully we can score some points in the race."