BAR progress boosts Villeneuve

Villeneuve delighted his home faithful by putting the car into the top eight but then suffered an engine problem that robbed him of his last run and dropped him down a place to ninth.

"It's the best feeling I've had from a BAR in four years," the 1997 world champion said as he contemplated a race in which points look to be a genuine possibility.

"I was a little bit worried yesterday because we were playing around with fuel, but we did better than I expected today. We managed to improve the car overnight and it was too bad that I had an engine problem on the last run because we timed it just right before the rain came and I could have improved the lap."

BAR has a new aerodynamic package in Canada which has given the chassis a distinctly Williams look, unsurprising in view of the previous employ of new technical director Geoff Willis.

"It has confirmed our view that we are heading in the right direction with the latest evolution of the car," said team principal David Richards. "With Jacques performing in front of his home crowd, let's hope we can deliver a good result."