Rubens Barrichello admitted he expected a difficult qualifying in Germany after not using his KERS during the session.
The Brazilian qualified in 14th position after his Williams team decided not to run KERS in his car in order to gather data for comparison. Barrichello was using a new diffuser and new front wing.
"We knew we might struggle on my car as we weren't able to use KERS here," said Barrichello. "We didn't have an ideal balance on the car, particularly compared to the morning, and it wasn't possible to get on top of that during the session. We need to analyze that in detail, and look for better pace in the race tomorrow."
Teammate Pastor Maldonado also struggled during qualifying and conceded he was expecting a stronger session after posting the 13th fastest time.
"It was a difficult session for us," he said. "We were looking more competitive than this yesterday, but not enough to be in Q3. We were working more on race pace so we will see tomorrow. I think we have the possibility to score some points if we have the right strategy."