For a moment, it seemed as though Williams' poor form was set to continue, as Rubens Barrichello could not qualify outside of the bottom seven. However, he was suffering from gearbox trouble, whilst teammate Pastor Maldonado managed to squeeze into the top ten.

Frustrated by the results, Rubens afterwards said: "I knew we had a gearbox problem as soon as I went out in Q1 as it felt strange. I think there is a big positive in saving a set of tyres, which is one way of looking at it, but having seen where Pastor finished, we could also have had a good shot inside the top ten."

He'll start from 19th on the grid tomorrow.