Irvine fights on

'I'm really disappointed but we're not giving up,' he said. 'This was a poor result because we were capable of getting on the front roe.

'On my penultimate lap I had traffic, and then on the last one I locked my brakes on a damp patch, went onto the grass and that was the end of it.

'But the race will be a different story. If it's dry, then I'm confident that I've made the right tyre choice. Combined with our good reliable car this will allow me to be as aggressive as I need to be.'

His team-mate Mika Salo is three places further back in 12th and blamed traffic for his personal lack of pace.

'It's amazing how many people do not look in their mirrors,' he said. 'I did a time in the wet and then had traffic in the dry.'

Team boss Jean Todt found it hard to look on the bright side.

He said: 'The difference between the cars is very close, but our cars are in the middle of the grid, while our closest rivals are in the top three places. This is not an ideal situation for the race.'