Promising qualifying for Virgin, but McLaren and Ferrari struggle

The Dinnington team enjoyed their first Q2 session in qualifying with the German on the eighth row of the grid for the start of tomorrow's 56-lap Malaysian Grand Prix with three world champions, two Ferraris and two McLarens in his mirrors.

Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa all have to challenge from the back of the grid after struggling in the rain.

Glock said: "It's been a very good weekend for us so far. We've had no real problems with the car and we've been able to do proper work during every session.

"Qualifying went quite smoothly considering the rain at the start of the session. It was critical to get out on time and my lap in Q1 was really good, getting me into Q2.

"It was good to see us do a better job than some of the top teams and as a result they will be starting behind us. Q2 wasn't perfect though as we came in too early and that cost us the place against Heikki. In general though we have to be happy with what we have achieved today.

"It's great for the team and there is now a lot of motivation for tomorrow. It looks like it could be a crazy race tomorrow, so we have to stay focused - and stay on the track - and we'll see how it all ends."

On the other side of the Virgin garage it was a less happy tale for Lucas di Grassi.

The team suspected a blocked filter in his VR-01 during this morning's session and had to remove the rear end during the two sessions to investigate ahead of tomorrow's race.

The turnaround time being so tight, the car was still being put back together when the qualifying hour got underway and there were heroic efforts from Lucas' team to get the car out at all in Q1. This they managed four minutes from the end of the session, by which time the track was so wet that there was no way that Lucas would be able to establish a representative time against those who completed laps on intermediates.