Webber admits he expected more

Webber said that he had expected a tough battle for a spot on the front row, but conceded that he still hoped to be higher than his final qualifying position of fifth.

"I knew the front row was going to be very competitive today, so I'm a bit disappointed to be off the second row," said the Australian.

"But, I couldn't have done a lap to get on the front row, so it could be worse - could be better - we keep hanging in there. It's a long race tomorrow, we'll see how it goes."

The Red Bull driver said that his relatively low qualifying position was not the result of any particular problem, and nor was there any particular part of the track where he felt he was losing time.

"[I've been] having trouble getting the rhythm around here, so there's a few places I know I lost time on most of my laps because I wasn't fast enough. Simple as that. Seb [Vettel] has been very fast all weekend and Fernando [Alonso] got the pole. Fair play to them."