He ran back to the garage to use the T-car, which had been set up for his team mate, however the different set-up and rain during the final minutes of qualifying stopped him from improving on his fastest time.

"Top six was more than I expected today, so I am very pleased!" exclaimed Fisichella in a press release. "The engineers and mechanics did a good job and everything went well, we improved the car set-up step by step and on my last run, I did a particularly good lap.

"This position is a good starting point for tomorrow. I have done well in the past here and I feel anything is possible. I hope to score some points but my target would be to get on the podium which I have done four times before at this circuit.

Sato ended up fifteenth - a respectable showing for his first visit to this challenging track. "Of course I'm disappointed because I could have got a better position than this. I was going well on my second run as we had improved the set-up," he remarked.

"At the stage when my engine failed I was only three tenths behind Giancarlo and in P9. I had to run back to the pit lane to get in the T-car but it had a slightly different set-up. We made changes, ready for a final run, but it started to rain and I had no time to better my fastest lap."

Gary Anderson, director of race and test engineering, added to his drivers' words: "We are obviously pleased with Giancarlo in sixth position as it's our best qualifying result this year, and only 1.1 seconds behind Michael Schumacher, the quickest Bridgestone driver.

"Takuma was doing a fine job when he had a very unfortunate engine failure. He had a run in the T-car but it was set up for Giancarlo and didn't have the same feel. The rain came before Takuma got his last run, so there was no chance to improve on 15th but nevertheless we're pretty happy with that."