With the qualifying session not going their way, Force India drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil didn’t cut a happy picture on Saturday evening.

"I am a little disappointed. We were there but ultimately, only five-hundredths of a second made the difference and I could not go into the second qualifying session," Fisichella said on Saturday.

"The race will be close if it rains. In fact, I am okay with driving in the rain. There is no traction control. The gaps have become smaller due to no electronic aids and it is better for us. Things will be interesting," the Italian, who won here in 2006, said.

"I like the circuit and love to race here. The car's grip level is good but there was understeer during qualifying.

We are concentrating on finishing the race and getting some points. There have been some changes from the last race and we are getting better," he said.

Needless to say, Sutil was disappointed. "The car is good. But I had soft compound tyres and they were not working out for me during qualifying. I should have had hard compound tyres." Team boss Vijay Mallya was, however, optimistic. "We have made serious progress. Removal of traction control is working. It is interesting now and things can go anywhere. Anything can happen in a race and it's not over till it's over," he said.

Commenting on Sutil's show, Mallya observed, “He was running on soft tyres. He later shifted to hard compound tyres. But by the time the tyres warmed up, the session was over. Our drivers are happy about driving in the rain. I wish for what makes them happy.

“We are now 2.2 seconds quicker than in the past. The gap between the top cars and us is about 1.2 seconds. It may be difficult to cut 1.2 seconds this year but we are making determined efforts.”

Mallya said they were looking to cut one tenth of a second in the next race in Bahrain. They plan some changes in the car later in the season. "We plan to introduce a new aerodynamics package. By June, we hope to install the seamless shift gearbox on our cars. That will help us cut times. We are developing it," he said.