'I have been very lucky' - Villeneuve

The French-Canadian joked he is lucky not to have been injured this year after he walked away unscathed from the latest in a string of high-speed accidents.

But the ex-world champion said he was not giving up on British American Racing, despite speculation he would quit the team if reliability does not improve.

The Canadian crashed off approaching Les Combes corner when his front suspension broke at 200mph during first practice for Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix.

BAR decided not to allow teammate Ricardo Zonta to continue until the reason for the car failure had been traced.

'The front suspension pulled off when I hit the brakes,' said Villeneuve.

'When that happens you just look for where you are going to hit the barriers, luckily there were not many things to hit there and I was pretty safe.'

The bonding broke on the suspension and new parts are being flow in overnight from the team's factory in England for tomorrow's qualifying.

'It's been a pretty tough season. A lot of people saying I have been very unlucky but actually I have been very lucky,' he added.

'The number of times the suspension has broken and wings also and I still haven't hurt myself so it's been pretty lucky.

'It [the car] has proved a lot tougher than anyone expected.'

BAR started the season saying its target was to win their very first race from pole.

Since then Villeneuve has failed to even reach the chequered flag, let alone score a point.

'But no-one is giving up. Everyone's working very hard. We have to just keep on looking ahead and trying to succeed.'