Jaguar encouraged by performance

Irvine and de la Rosa were sixth and eighth quickest respectively on the first day of the French Grand Prix weekend. The result will be a boost after the false start with the new car at Silverstone two weeks ago.

"Friday lap times are notoriously deceptive and while our times are pleasing, it is impossible to say where we rank alongside the competition," said a cautious Lauda.

Irvine said: "We need to understand one or two things better, but I am generally pleased with where we are. The R3 feels much better around here than it did at Silverstone and our three-day Monza test last week has helped us.

"The Michelin tyres are performing very well and I've suffered no problems so far. I didn't get enough clean laps today and found myself stuck in traffic several times. There is still more time in the car that we haven't yet extracted."

But as de la Rosa said: "The ultimate test faces us tomorrow in the shape of qualifying and until then, it's not worth reading too much into today's final positions."