Scuderia Toro Rosso rookie Sebastien Buemi believes he could have made it into the top 10shoot-out for the second time in 2009, but for a mistake during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Swiss, who was in the mix throughout Q2 and comfortably outpaced his teammate Sebastien Bourdais throughout, missed out to Kazuki Nakajima when he made an error after La Rascasse.
"I am reasonably happy with my performance, although I could have made it into the top ten if I hadn't made a mistake at the final corner," said Buemi. "But there's no point thinking about that anymore.
"Now we must concentrate on tomorrow, trying to find the best possible strategy. We have seen that our car is much more competitive than before and I think we can aspire to finish in the top eight and get some points. I am confident we can do well."
Bourdais was less confident after qualifying 14th, which he blamed on a mysterious loss of grip between free practice and qualifying.
"I just could not get the car to turn and I don't know why," said Bourdais. "I touched the barriers a few times, but there's a big difference between touching and hitting! It's disappointing because I think the car had the potential to get to Q3 today."