Irvine left with mixed feelings

Irvine set a lap of 1m14.441s on his first flying lap at Magny-Cours, which was good enough for provisional pole in the opening minutes of the session. However, the Ulsterman spun on his second run and had to resort to the T-car for the rest of the qualifying period. But he spun again and couldn't improve on his time on his last run. That left him with the 12th fastest time of the session, but he says that's about where he expected to be.

"It was obviously disappointing to lose the race car," said Irvine, "but it's debatable whether I could have got further up the grid with it today.

"My first lap was bloody good. I was two-and-a-half tenths off moving up a position and everyone improved through the session, so you would have to assume I would have too. However the T-car was actually slightly better balanced than my race car, but into corner seven the rear end of the car was very wayward and I half spun on my last lap. We know the car is good in race trim, so if I push hard tomorrow you never know..."

Team boss Bobby Rahal said he was disappointed with his drivers' qualifying positions - Irvine's team mate Pedro de la Rosa starts 14th - but he too is optimistic about Jaguar's chances in Sunday's race.

"Eddie started well with a great lap and it all looked good until he went off," said the American. "I'm disappointed because we were not able to improve through the session. Even so, the performance of the car was a little better, but we still have to make it more consistent so that our drivers can push it harder.

"Our expectations are now higher because of our improved performance over the last few races," concluded Rahal. "Don't rule us out of the equation tomorrow."