Ralf upbeat despite 12th placing

Ralf Schumacher was upbeat despite his second-quickest effort translating into 12th on the grid due to his penalty.

He said: “We made the best out of the car. The car is handling as expected or even better – we will definitely have a competitive car for tomorrow.

“Certainly from where we have to start it will be difficult. But never mind, sometimes the team make mistakes, sometimes I make mistakes, as I have done many times before and this time it was the engine.

“I don’t really care – we definitely look better than we did in Barcelona.”

Jenson Button added: “I’m very pleased, it’s obviously very disappointing for Ralf. I am very pleased to be where I am.

“I’ve been struggling in sector two all day, I’ve had a lot of understeer on the car mostly on the slow corners.

“I think we’ve cured most of that but I think I was losing a little bit of time because of that.”