Irvine determined to rescue his lost weekend

But the Ulsterman has said he has not given up hope of finishing in the points if the early rain, which made the warm-up such a damp affair, clears and the sweltering heat claims several retirements. He said his Jaguar would not get points on pace alone, but could if other drivers make mistakes.

"I need to make a good start and just hope that we're there at the end and maybe pick up some points if other people don't finish," he said. "We have to hope. We just have to make sure we don't screw up. If we don't screw up and other people do, we'll get points.

"If we screw up as well, we won't, so we have to make sure we don't have problems like we did in Australia," he added. "There, when everyone else screwed up, we screwed up as well. We have to be better than the rest in that department because we won't get points on pace."

Irvine also said he is out for "revenge" after being blocked on his fastest lap yesterday by former champion Jacques Villeneuve's BAR.