Jacques Villeneuve Q&A
Jacques Villeneuve has never had much luck in Monaco, but from 10th on the grid he put in a solid drive to fourth, catching up with third man Eddie Irvine in the closing laps. Now we head to Montreal, the circuit named after Jacques's father, and the scene of more than a little drama for Villeneuve Jr over the years. He finished second in 1996, but has gone off the road in each of the last four years. He's made two visits to the wall opposite the pits (1997 and 1999), and a couple of kamikaze passing moves that didn't quite work out (on Giancarlo Fisichella in 1998 and Ralf Schumacher last year). Will he get it right this time? Adam Cooper spoke to the Canadian star

"The driving of the track I've always loved, but it's just it has never worked well, mainly in qualifying. I've never had a car that I could really do what I wanted with. But in the race it's always gone much better than qually, and again it was the case. Our race pace was much better than our qually pace. I was just pushing at the end trying to get Eddie to make a mistake, but he didn't. There were no problems at all. The car was very precise. It was a little bit on the nose, a little bit loose, but it stayed strong until the end and the team did a great job at the pit stop as well."
"Yeah, but the quick guys at the front didn't really drop out. Nobody that was slower than us finished in front, which was good. It was great to get a good result before Montreal."
"Yeah, it was important. Apart from the podium it's been a shitty season, so it was very important. Everybody expected us to be useless here, so I'm very happy."
"Ninety-seven was probably the worst, when I hit the wall on the second lap. The funny thing is I didn't even think I was going fast. I was just relaxed, and taking it easy, and thinking about the end of the race and what would happen, and I found myself in the wall! It was really weird, and very unexpected. It's not like I was pushing hard and on the limit and then overdrove. That's why I found it a little bit surprising."
"Last year we were actually quite fast in the wet, and then we had some stupid radio miscommunication. We were the only car to stop at exactly the perfect moment for the tyres, and that was by luck."
"There weren't many laps left, and what's the point of finishing 10th or something? You have to overtake people. So you just go for it. It didn't work out, but that's what racing is, you have to take risks, you shouldn't just sit there. But I wasn't trying to overtake Ralf, I was trying to overtake David, but somehow Ralf ended up to be in the way! I was just going it for it, taking the risk, and it didn't work out, as I outbraked myself. If it went well, there were still enough laps to get sixth. And the car was actually quick in the wet."
"It's a good race track to race on. Not so much to qualify on, because it's not very interesting, but for racing there are a lot of overtaking opportunities. And the other thing is that the crowd is great, the crowd is very positive towards everybody, and that's good. Normally we've been competitive in Montreal, it's just the races didn't turn out well. But at least we were competitive, so I actually look forward to going there."
"Well, during the race week it's a little bit difficult. During the rest of the year people do recognise me, but at the same time it's one of the countries where they are the most respectful, somehow. They don't want to invade you or jump on top of you, as happens in other countries. They'll come up and make a discreet, nice comment instead of pointing with the finger and shouting so everybody turns around. There's a difference."
"I wouldn't say for the future, just roots in general. It's a little attachment to my home country, to my home town, so I have an excuse to go back once in a while."

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