Irvine: Nothing to Celebrate

Irishman Eddie Irvine claimed his Jaguar team had nothing to celebrate after qualifying in 13th place ahead of tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix.

Jaguar, fighting for seventh place in the Constructors' Championship against the Benetton team, came off worst in their battle with the Renault-owned outfit, with Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa qualifying three places behind Irvine in 16th place while the Benetton drivers were sixth and ninth.

Irvine said he was not happy with his performance, but the outspoken Ulsterman admitted he was surprised by his qualifying time and hoped to repeat his result from the United States Grand Prix, where he finished in fourth place.

"While we have nothing to celebrate by qualifying 13th, I am surprised at my qualifying time," said Irvine. "We simply didn't expect it to be that quick relative to what we found during the morning warm-up sessions.

"I was expecting to post a time in the 1 minute 35 second bracket and to be honest, I have no idea why I managed a better time.

"My concern before qualifying was Benetton-Renault and it proved correct. We have beaten them on high downforce circuits this year, but this is where they are strong. It's a very tall order to make something out of tomorrow's race, but that's what we thought in Indianapolis and look what happened."