Cosworth gives Irvine's Jaguar boost

Irvine, who has been linked this weekend to a Jordan drive for next year, believes that a new Cosworth engine has made a significant improvement in the R3's performance.

"My best qualifying position of the year and without doubt, a step in the right direction for the whole team," Irvine said. "The new and improved Cosworth engine has helped us here and combined with the good set-up work, we have been rewarded with qualifying positions that allow us with a chance of scraping for points tomorrow."

His session was far from easy. "Michael Schumacher held me up on my first run, but my second run was clean. I lost most of the session while the team addressed the gearbox oil pump issue and beause of this, I missed out on two flying laps which would have taken me a little further up the grid."

Lauda said: "The team did an excellent job correcting the problem. The end result is much more pleasing than we have generated over the past few races. For the first time this season, we are starting a race from where we stand a chance of scoring points."

Irvine's team-mate Pedro de la Rosa will start 16th..