Virgin duo seeking greater reliability

The German, whose car had to be craned away, said: "It had been a reasonable day for us apart from the gearbox problem – the car didn't feel too bad. It's difficult to comment on our pace because I lost some time at the end of the session but in general I'm happy with the first laps of the weekend and we'll see how it goes tomorrow."

Nick Wirth, the team's technical director, added: "In theory the car should be better again when we start running low fuel, so I'm expecting to see some progress in qualifying.

Glock's team-mate Lucas Di Grassi is hoping the reliability problems which have "haunted" Virgin Racing's debut season in Formula 1 will soon be a distant memory.

Brazilian driver Di Grassi, in his first season in F1, has endured an expected tough start in the new Virgin car.

Plagued with reliability issues, plus a change to the chasis size to incorporate a larger fuel tank, the Dinnington team have had to be patient.

But after Di Grassi finished the Canadian Grand Prix last time in Montreal – his fourth finish in eight F1 starts – there were signs that the Yorkshire-based team could soon be challenging further up the grid.

"At this stage, where we are with the team, the main thing is to get home and finish the race," said Di Grassi. "To do a fantastic qualifying, whether we finish two places in front or behind, does not really matter for us at this moment.

"What matters for us is to have a consistent race, try new things and really try to finish the race. We have only finished six races in total – I have finished four, Timo two – and reliability has been haunting us.

"But everything has been going much better recently, the car is reliable and has a high chance of finishing races.

"The main thing is reliability, and where our focus is aimed at. The next step is to work on performance, finishing the race as the best of the new teams.

We are getting closer all the time."