Yoong Glad to Qualify for French GP

Malaysian Alex Yoong was relieved after making it onto the grid for Sunday's French Grand Prix following his failure to qualify at the Silverstone circuit two weeks ago.

The rookie, who today turned 26, will start Sunday's race from a best ever 19th position, although he will again be the last car on the grid after Arrows drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi failed to qualify, and Jordan's Giancarlo Fisichella was forced to miss the session following a massive accident during practice.

After missing out on the grid both at the British and the San Marino Grands Prix, Yoong was pleased to qualify at Magny-Cours, although he claimed he could have gone a lot faster.

"My car was suffering from understeer throughout qualifying, and then a fuel delivery problem cost me time on the final two runs," said Yoong. "On the positive side, it was good to get in lots of laps this morning. It also gave us the chance to experiment a bit with the car and, as a result, we learned one or two useful things.

"There's no doubt in my mind we could have been a lot quicker today, but ultimately I'm glad to have qualified and pleased to be in tomorrow's race."

Yoong qualified two seconds behind Australian Minardi teammate Mark Webber, who posted the 18th fastest time of the day.