More Misery for Rocketsports

For much of Friday's qualifying session, Hunter-Reay and Glock filled the back row of the grid. While Hunter-Reay eventually hauled his Lola up to 15th place, Glock had to settle for 18th and last as a broken valve spring brought him into the pits after only a few minutes.

The ex-Jordan Formula 1 driver had already endured gearbox problems in the morning, and then missed the second practice session thanks to a spin at the hairpin.

"Our luck never changes - it is always bad," Glock lamented. "Today, it was important for me to get as much track time as possible, since I have never driven at this track.

"During the afternoon session, my rear brakes locked up, causing me to spin. Since the red flag came out, I was penalised and only got to run four laps during the warm-up part of qualifying.

"I immediately went out to make up for lost time when provisional qualifying began, but after a couple of laps I found myself sidelined again, with a lost valve spring.

"Hopefully our luck will change for tomorrow, but I am running out of time to get familiar with the track."

Hunter-Reay complained of understeer and a general lack of grip, and was not confident that the problems could be rectified in time for tomorrow's crucial final qualifying session.

"We have a lot of work to do," he said. "We are off the pace and we need to figure out why.

"The major struggle today was lack of grip. The car was not getting around the corners and I was experiencing a lot of understeer.

"During the afternoon, it felt like we have made some improvements. The car was turning better and the understeer was less, but it was still not good enough."