Villeneuve Encouraged by Qualifying Pace

British American Racing driver Jacques Villeneuve was encouraged following a promising performance in Saturday's qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix.

At the Imola circuit today, Villeneuve completed his best performance of the year so far, setting the tenth quickest time and also being the fastest of the four Honda runners. The 1997 World Champion was glad to see that his hard work was finally starting to pay dividends.

"It looks like the hard work done during the last two tests is starting to pay off and I'm very pleased for the team," admitted the Canadian, who finished two places ahead of teammate Olivier Panis. "Tenth and 12th is definitely a step forward for us.

"We had a difficult start to the weekend and yesterday showed us that we had a lot of work to do to improve the car for qualifying.

"I was a little disappointed with my own qualifying session because I don't think we found the best set-up for me. On the positive side, we have been reliable all weekend so we need to stay focused and make the most of every opportunity tomorrow."

The Brackley-based squad are one of the three teams - along with Jordan and Arrows - who are yet to score a point this year.