Happy Villeneuve 'Faster than Expected'

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve was delighted with his performance in first qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, and admitted he had been faster than expected.

"It was a good lap and I'm happy that the car is working well," said the Canadian, fourth quickest today. "I knew we'd be competitive here but that's a little faster than I expected. We had a few problems this morning in free practice but we changed certain things with our set-up for qualifying and that did the trick.

"I feel good. I like this track and I have great memories of racing here. There are some good overtaking opportunities so there is always a lot of action. Our strategy will determine how well we do through the rest of the weekend but we're looking better than we have in other races this season."

The Honda-powered BARs showed strongly and Briton Jenson Button completed a positive day for the Brackley-based outfit by posting the fifth fastest time.

"We expected to be quite high up in first qualifying here. So far so good," the Briton said. "From the off though the car had far too much oversteer. We thought we had made a set-up improvement after free practice but I think we over-compensated and the car was too nervous at the rear.

"It's not a big problem, we just need to do some more work on the set-up. Over one lap the car is good but we'll have to work on the longer runs now. I'm reasonably confident at this stage and looking forward to a good weekend."