Signs are promising for Virgin

McLaren duo Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and now Ferrari's Fernando Alonso – who set the fastest time in practice on Thursday – have all stated that they feel the likes of Virgin, Lotus and Hispania Racing could create a dangerous bottleneck in this lunchtime's qualifying session.

Hamilton – who drove for Booth's Manor Motorsport in 2004 – warned that the one-lap qualifying session 'could be a disaster' with 24 cars on track during the opening 20 minutes of qualifying. Those chasing pole fear there may not be enough time to get a lap in around the Principality's famous tight and narrow street circuit.

But Booth, whose team secured their first two-car finish six days ago in Spain, countered that Virgin have earned their place to be on the grid at Formula 1's blue riband event.

"I can understand where Lewis was coming from, he was coming off the back of a bad weekend with the late puncture in Spain so his frustrations were understandable," said Booth, whose confidence has grown following their relative achievement in Barcelona.

"But we have earned the right to be in Formula 1."

Virgin allayed some of the front-runners' concerns with their performance on Thursday when Lucas Di Grassi and Timo Glock were only 3.5 and 3.8 seconds off the pace – a marked improvement on their practice times in the five previous grands prix.

"Everything went to plan in practice on Thursday and we ran really well," added Booth.

"The problem for us is when the blue flags start waving and we have to move over and allow the quicker drivers to go past.

"As soon as they catch us the blue flags do make it very hard for us because we have to slow up and we lose a lot of time.

"But hopefully this weekend there'll be a couple of safety cars out and the weather will mix it up a little to give us that bit of help we're after."

Two-time world champion Alonso was quickest in Thursday practice in a time of 1.14:904, but the man who won around Monaco in 2006 and 2007 accepts that today's first qualifying session could prove pivotal.

"It is a challenge for the drivers to get the space to do a lap and not destroy anyone," said the 28-year-old.

"And a challenge for the team to find the right time to send us out and with the right strategy.

"Q1 will be the time to focus, concentrate and put a lap together.

"We maybe won't need a super lap, but just enough to be in the first 15 to 16, and we should be able to do that."

The Spaniard's performance on Thursday offered a glimmer of hope that the qualifying dominance the Red Bull team of Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel have enjoyed may be about to come to an end.

Red Bull have claimed pole at all five races, locking out the front row in three of those.

But Alonso said: "This is a circuit where you need to get confidence as soon as possible.

"It is a circuit you need to feel okay in the car and to maximise the potential.

"So it was very good to start in such a way because we now don't need to go crazy.

"Overall I think we found a very good car from the beginning that is very easy to drive.

"But we know it will be close in qualifying as we saw yesterday, with just three tenths of a second separating seven or eight cars.

"So we cannot afford any mistake on our side or with the set-up. We need to be perfect today."