Vettel delighted with qualifying effort

The German made it through to Q2 ahead of Vitantonio Liuzzi and felt that finally he was on top of the car in qualifying for the first time.

"This was definitely a good day for me as finally I had a good qualifying," said Vettel. "Yesterday, we were struggling and I was not very happy with the car, but this morning we improved it a lot and we also seemed to have found the best way to deal with qualifying, as I really got the maximum out of the tyres.

"In Q2, the track improved and I improved, but I did not have any more of the Option tyre at that point. In the final sector, I might have lost a couple of hundredths, but overall for me this was a nice day."

Teammate Liuzzi could manage no better than 19th after complaining about traffic on his final lap.

"I was a bit unlucky in that Wurz was going out on track just as I was on my final quick lap and it slowed me down a bit," said the Italian. "I also then had traffic in the last two corners which cost me two or three tenths, otherwise I might have made it to Q2.

"Since this morning I seemed to be suffering with a lack of top speed compared to my team mate. We have improved the car a bit today, but it will be a tough race. As for tomorrow's strategy we will have to look at what the others are likely to do. However, Monza is usually a one-stop race as going down pit lane takes a long time, but nothing is decided yet."