Unhappy Trulli expected a lot better

The Toyota driver was believed to be one of the favourites to fight for the top positions, but in the end the Italian finished down in eighth.

Trulli said his tyres were not warming up properly ahead of his flying laps, but he has vowed to fight hard in the race to make up ground.

"That was a really hard qualifying for me. I expected a lot more from today so I am disappointed," Trulli said. "Of course I will fight as hard as I can in the race but I don't know what to expect because the car felt different in qualifying compared to final practice.

"I don't know why but the tyres just would not warm up as expected and I was sliding around quite a bit. On top of that I had some issues with the brakes so it was really difficult for me."

Team-mate Timo Glock had a better day, qualifying in sixth position.

The German, however, believes a better result was possible if he had found a better set-up for his Toyota.

"We struggled a bit in second and third practice to find the right balance but we worked hard to find a solution and we did some set-up work which got the car into the right set-up window," said Glock.

"I think with a bit more fine-tuning maybe we could have been further up the grid - we were only a tenth behind the top three so it could have been better but I am quite positive about the result.

"The car feels pretty good now and we are clearly not far away so let's see how it goes tomorrow in terms of strategy. I am pretty happy and reasonably confident."