Disappointed Irvine looks to the race

The Irishman will start sixth, with the Jordans and Ralf Schumacher's Williams seperating him from the McLarens.

'I didn't expect to be one and a half seconds from pole,' he admitted. 'What is worse is that another team has slipped between us and our usual rivals.

'I could have gone quicker except that I was slowed by traffic.

'But the car is simply not quick enough and we now have to work very hard to improve it.

'As for tomorrow, my target will be to get on the podium.'

His team-mate Mika Salo believes that the race will be a different story however.

'My car was very slow and I just could not get the maximum performance out of it,' he said. 'I hope this will be less of a problem in race trim as the car felt good with a heavy fuel load this morning.

'We have a reliable car, so I can still have a good race.'

Team boss Jean Todt was similarly disappointed.

'This is one of Eddie's worst grid positions of the season. We were never able to use one hundred percent of the car's potential,' he explained.

'Anyway, we must think about tomorrow in a positive frame of mind and do everything we can to improve the situation.'