Mat Coch writes:

Out-qualifying his teammate for just the second time in 2010, Vitaly Petrov snuck his way into Q3 at the expense of stablemate Robert Kubica. It was a solid performance from the Russian at just the right time, what with discussions over his future continuing.

"I have been running in the top ten most of the weekend, and it was nice to deliver this potential in qualifying," he said after today's session. "We know a good set up, we find a good set up on brakes, and things like this and every session was better and better."

Starting from tenth on the grid the Renault driver will be looking to strategy and tyre management to move his way through the field, with passing on the dusty Yas Marina circuit difficult. "Overtaking is almost impossible but the race will be quite long, so the tyre degradation is quite high here, I think it's going to be most difficult."

The Russian came under fire yesterday from team boss Eric Boullier, who told the Russian press than Petrov needs to embrace the English way of doing things if he is to succeed in Formula One. The Frenchman was critical again in the team's post qualifying press release, suggesting Petrov could have done better. "We cannot be satisfied to line up tenth and 11th on the grid: we set our sights higher than this," he said. "As for Vitaly, it's good to see him in Q3 again, but he made a mistake on his final run and could have gone even quicker."

For his part Petrov maintains that he is totally focussed on the job at hand, leaving his management team to discuss his future prospects. "I don't think about the future," insisted the 26-year-old. I have some people around who do this job, so I must to do just my job to drive."