Irvine Stresses Importance of Qualifying

Jaguar Racing's Eddie Irvine once again stressed the importance of having a good qualifying session as he finished ninth in the British Grand Prix.

Irvine started from 15th on the grid at Silverstone and said that a better position at the start could have helped him secure points in the British race.

"I drove a reasonably good race today," said Irvine. "I didn't start too well and lost a couple of places into the first corner. Without sounding like a stuck record, we have been reminded again of the importance of qualifying better, but my whole race weekend was made more difficult by not testing here at the last test.

"Our car hasn't tested this new aero package until Friday's Free Practice and I hope to have a much better understanding of its strengths next week at Monza."

Irvine's teammate Pedro de la Rosa also failed to score points as he finished 12th and had his race ruined by a problem with the fuel rig at his one and only pit-stop in the race.

"That was a very boring race from my perspective," admitted de la Rosa. "I had to pit twice when we had actually decided to go for a long one-stop strategy. There was a problem with the fuel rig during delivery and I had no choice but to come back in again. This cost me a lot of time and I was making up the numbers after that.

"I don't really have to much to say in addition to what we've already said since Magny Cours. We need to qualify better and we are working hard towards achieving that."