Villeneuve Plays Down Friday Times

With Villeneuve and Felipe Massa not being able to run with a new front-wing development, as the truck carrying the parts was delayed, the pair could manage no better than 16th and 17th fastest in the first day of action at Silverstone.

Speaking after a spin and having suffered minor car damage following a collision with a piece of debris on the track, Villeneuve said: "When I spun in Turn 6 I had just come out of the pits on cold tyres and was driving really slowly, just checking what was behind me.

"It was like being on dry tyres in the wet every time we came out of the pits because it is too cold to generate good tyre temperatures. I wasn't happy at all with the balance today.

"I had understeer everywhere except Copse, where I had oversteer. Then I hit something on the track and put a dent in the front suspension and damaged the aerodynamics a little, and we were not able to get that fixed completely. We will have some new parts tomorrow and I'm sure we'll be more competitive."

Massa was much happier with his car, although left slightly frustrated when he was slowed by traffic while running with new tyres late in the second session.

"As usual, or so it seems lately, I got traffic on my lap on new tyres," he said. "Without that I could have done a low 1m 21s for sure. The car is very good on long runs and I'm very happy with it, so our situation is a lot better than it looks."