Michael Schumacher's failure to make it into Q3 today has been blamed on an issue with his movable rear wing which, it is claimed, was not working properly.

Having shown promise on Friday, more was expected of the German team today, and while Red Bull and McLaren clearly have the edge it was thought that the Silver Arrows from Brackley might challenge the Ferraris never mind the Renaults.

However, while Nico Rosberg made it into Q3, subsequently taking ninth on the grid, albeit just 0.011s ahead of Kamui Kobayashi, Schumacher, despite a late charge, was unable to make it into the final shoot-out.

"We had some issues with the rear wing activation today and unfortunately that's what compromised my last run in Q2," the seven-time champion subsequently told reporters. "The car became difficult to drive, which is a real shame as it had been working very well during the earlier runs."

Nonetheless, the German remains positive, believing that progress has been made since the team's double DNF in Melbourne.

The performance was much better with the wing, so of course we had to use it and I would still say that we have made a step forward thanks to the hard work from our guys," he said.

"We had a difficult session today," admitted Ross Brawn. "We're still struggling with the consistency of the car and are not giving Nico and Michael the best chance to show what they could achieve.

"There are times when the car is working well and the pace is evident," he continued, "however there are too many occasions where things are not functioning properly. We're quite clearly not where we want to be but will continue to work hard to achieve a more competitive position."