De la Rosa Impresses Despite Problems

Spanish driver Pedro de la Rosa recovered brilliantly from a disastrous morning session in today's practice for the British Grand Prix to set a promising seventh quickest time at the wheel of the Jaguar.

De la Rosa's progress was hampered by a fuel pressure problem during the morning part of the session and he was unable to set a time. However, thanks to the team's knowledge of the Silverstone circuit, the Spaniard was able to make up for the lost time and lapped half a second quicker than teammate Eddie Irvine.

"I lost the morning session through a fuel pressure problem but it wasn't too much of a hindrance because we know this circuit well," said de la Rosa. "The general set-up of the car feels good and we learnt a fair amount from the different tyre compounds we tried.

"Overall, I am pleased but we could certainly do with better weather and higher temperatures that would allow us to get more from the new package."

Irvine was also happy with his session - the Ulsterman praising Jaguar's new aerodynamic package - despite finishing six places behind his teammate in thirteenth.

"We made some good steps forward today and the new aerodynamic package is proving useful around this circuit," Irvine said. "We said right from the start that this wouldn't be our strongest circuit, but I am more optimistic now than I was after the first session. It's too early to be making definitive statements about how we will perform, but I'm optimistic after today."