More woe for beleagured Prost

Heidfeld, who had finished Friday's free practice sessions eighth, could only manage 15th, with Alesi only one place better, despite setting top six times at a three-day pre-race test at Magny-Cours.

"When you arrive with high hopes and then qualify in these positions, you are obviously very disappointed," said Prost. "Over the last two or three races, we have been improving the behaviour of the car a lot and we really wanted to turn this into a good result here, especially in qualifying, as we had such a good test last week.."

The Prost team is yet to score a world championship point this season - an honour shared only with Minardi. Yesterday Prost admitted that if a replacement engine deal cannot be found for the team's imminent split with Peugeot, it could seriously jeopardise the future of France's only Grand Prix team.

Despite Peugeot bringing out an improved version of its V10 for Magny-Cours, Alesi was quick to put blame at the French powerplant's door: "From the start of the weekend, my car has not been working really well," he said. "Anyway, my qualifying session was hampered badly by serious problems with the behaviour of my engine, especially when accelerating or slowing down. When I was decelerating, the engine kept on pushing, and when I tried to accelerate again, the engine felt as if it had something missing."

With engine deals at a premium in F1 at the moment, Prost and his driver's recent criticism of Peugeot has led most paddock pundits to believe that the partnership between team and engine-supplier is beyond salvation. However, Heidfeld did throw a nugget of consolation Peugeot's way.

"The car was well-balanced and the new engine was an improvement, as I thought it would be," said the German.