Jaguar Drivers Hoping for Higher Temperatures

Both Jaguar drivers Pedro de la Rosa and Eddie Irvine are hoping for higher temperatures during the European Grand Prix after struggling in today's free practice sessions.

Spaniard de la Rosa was the quickest of the Jaguar duo, setting the 14th fastest time with the Michelin-shod R3 chassis. De la Rosa concentrated on tyre evaluation for Sunday's Grand Prix, but admitted the track temperature was not high enough for the Michelin rubber to work at its peak.

"We undertook a tyre evaluation and concentrated on scrubbing tyres for the weekend," said de la Rosa. "The track temperature isn't high enough yet for the tyres to be working at their optimum.

"In addition, there were some very dark clouds around and I cannot see us getting through the weekend without rain â€" something that will inevitably make for a harder life around this circuit."

Briton Irvine struggled with the handling of his car and could only post the 21st quickest time, just ahead of Minardi's Alex Yoong. The Jaguar star was amongst the drivers against the changes to the layout of the Nurburgring circuit.

"I seem to be suffering from understeer on most parts of the circuit and as suspected, this weekend will be hard on us," added Irvine. "The car's behavioural characteristics are not well suited to this track. The tyres seem to be working OK, but we could do with higher temperatures that would allow us to extract more from the tyres.

"As for the new layout, I don't like it at all. It's slow and completely unnecessary, in my opinion."