Disappointed Villeneuve Hopes for Stronger Race

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve expects to have a stronger Chinese Grand Prix after a disappointing qualifying session today.

Despite being around four tenths of a second slower than Renault teammate Fernando Alonso, Villeneuve will start the race at the Shanghai circuit seven places behind the Spaniard in 13th position.

The former World Champion said he was disappointed with the result, but was confident to be faster in the race.

"I am slightly disappointed with my position - although the gap to Fernando is not so big, I was really in the wrong part of the grid and the small time difference translated into a lot of positions between us," said the Canadian driver.

"I wasn't completely happy with the lap in qualifying, and definitely lost several tenths in turn 13 before the main straight. But we know the car is better on used tyres - which means we will be stronger in the race than we were today."

Alonso, meanwhile, put on a strong performance to set the sixth quickest time of the day.

"I had quite a difficult day because when we began running this morning, the car's handling was very different to yesterday and much more nervous," said Alonso. "We had to work on solving these problems, and that meant we did not really reach the car's full potential in qualifying.

"From my point of view, I did not make any mistakes on the lap - I was pushing right to the limit and it was definitely my best lap of the weekend in terms of getting everything right. I am much more confident for the race than I was before qualifying though: we have a good chance for tomorrow."