David Coulthard: I love this track it's a great challenge, but unfortunately our car just isn't generating the overall grip that's needed here. The balance isn't too bad, it's as good as it's been during any other lap I've driven here, we just lack efficiency on this type of high-speed circuit. We're not really performing as we should be. The year started badly and we've never really recovered from it, it's a big disappointment.

Robert Doornbos: It's difficult to get the maximum out of the car and tyres in these dry conditions and we struggled during qualifying. I didn't think we'd qualify this low, I thought we'd get through to the second session for sure. We've got a long day ahead tomorrow, it's not going to be easy.

Christian Horner: Both drivers struggled today with performance on new tyres. The longer runs this morning were reasonable, but the car lacked pace on new tyres and it's obviously frustrating to qualify 17th and 18th. The circuit seems to favour Bridgestone at the moment, however hopefully some variable conditions in the race tomorrow will allow us to progress through the field and we'll be working hard on our strategy this evening.

To check out our Suzuka qualifying gallery, click here