Williams sorry to miss out on top ten

The British squad had shone in yesterday's practice, but they were unable to repeat their feat and both drivers failed to make the cut in the second session.

"It was a bit difficult to get it right today as the car was quite loose, so I couldn't really attack and I made a few mistakes," Rosberg said after finishing in 12th position.

"It's unfortunate because it's about time all our work started to produce some results. Twelfth on the grid is obviously not what we were hoping for as we are all determined to get ahead of where we were last year."

Austrian Wurz, returning for a full season of Grand Prix action for the first time since 2000, finished down in 15th, although he reckons their race pace will be stronger.

"It was interesting to see how the qualifying sessions work from a driver's point of view, I'd have to say it is fairly brutal," he said.

"Naturally I'm disappointed not to make it into the top ten, but it would have been difficult to achieve this and on my last run I lost three or four tenths at turn 15 when I slid a bit wide.

"Yesterday we did some strong long runs, so the race is a different story, even if I have to start from 15th."