Gene Pleased with Qualifying Effort

Williams stand-in race driver Marc Gene said he was happy with eighth-place in qualifying for the French Grand Prix after finishing just one tenth of a second slower than Colombian teammate Juan Pablo Montoya.

Spanish test driver Gene, replacing the injured Ralf Schumacher at Magny Cours, struggled to get to grips with the requirement for a low fuel single-lap run in first qualifying session but recovered to push into the top ten.

"It was difficult, especially the first qualifying when the teams change the fuel loads and I am not very used to driving with different fuel loads," said Gene after his first experience of back-to-back qualifying sessions since last year.

"When I test I am always driving with the same fuel load, so this is the only thing that I have to work a little bit more on because I didn't feel very comfortable in the first qualifying. In the second qualifying session I did a reasonably good lap.

"When I saw the lap time you can always hope for better but I was quite happy with what I got today."

Gene has competed in 34 Grands Prix and last raced for Williams when stepping up to replace the injured Schumacher at the Italian Grand Prix last year, where he went on to claim fifth place.