Lewis Hamilton just missed out on grabbing pole position. The Brit was fastest in yesterday's sessions and was looking to get the pole until the last minute. "It's great to see the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team with both cars on the front two rows - it's a sign that there's real pace here now. Everyone in the team is doing a fantastic job and we were genuinely competitive today.

He continued: "At one stage during Q3 I was up: I had half a tenth in reserve. But then I went a little bit wide, which triggered a big oversteer moment, and the result was that I lost that crucial bit of time. But the points aren't given out for today, and I'm feeling good about tomorrow.

He expect to offer a good fight tomorrow though: "I'm very excited about the race, in fact, because we had quite a good long run yesterday and we'll work hard to build on that pace overnight and take it into tomorrow. We're in the fight – and, with a good start, we can definitely challenge for the win."