Engine Problems Hamper Panis's Progress

Frenchman Olivier Panis was disappointed after being unable to escape problems in qualifying for tomorrow's Belgian Grand Prix.

The British American Racing driver, who will leave the team at the end of the year, lost his Honda engine during yesterday's practice and again in today's qualifying, both times blowing up in spectacular fashion.

After the second failure of the weekend, Panis had to switch to the spare BAR, which was set up for teammate Jacques Villeneuve, something that cost the Frenchman a lot of valuable time. He was again hit by trouble with the second car, eventually having to settle for a disappointing 15th position, three places behind Villeneuve.

"What can I say? I lost my second engine in two days, which cost me all the good work I did with my engineers in practice this morning to achieve a car that was capable of qualifying in the top ten," said Panis.

"The T-car was set up for Jacques so we lost time changing the settings but I would like to congratulate the T-car crew for turning the car around so quickly.

"To make things worse, the engine that was fitted into the T-car had a problem which caused a misfire and I wasn't able to improve my time before the end of the session. So, I'll have to focus on tomorrow now and try to make the best of things in order to get the best possible position in the race tomorrow."