BAR comes good in Friday qualifying

Sixth and seventh on the provisional grid stands them in good stead for tomorrow's qualifying, as long as the conditions remain dry.

Jenson Button was again the faster of the duo, lapping in 1m21.891s. "Things didn't go too well this morning: the balance wasn't right and the car just didn't feel good," reported the Englishman. "Then, in qualifying, it felt completely different, pretty good in fact. Because it was a different car, though, it was hard to know where the limit was. I had a little oversteer and lost some time in the middle sector, but generally I was quite pleased with the lap."

Jacques Villeneuve was just a fraction slower, with his sole flying lap taking 1m21.926s. "I'm happy we got a good lap in," said the Canadian, "but it's just a shame that, for the third race running, we didn't get a lot of laps in during the morning. We had a software problem which affected the gearshift and that was the case again in qualifying, so we weren't quite on the limit."

Technical director Geoff Willis reckoned that their performance was according to plan: "We estimated that we'd be in the top eight today. There seems to be a reasonable mixture between Bridgestone runners and our rivals, so it doesn't look as though there is anything too different between the tyres. Certainly, in comparison to last year, we've made a huge step closer to the Ferraris which is part of our plan."