Jaguar Duo Rue Lack of Running

The Jaguar team's progress in today's practice for the Belgian Grand Prix was hampered by several problems that left both their drivers looking forward to regain the lost time on Saturday.

Both Pedro de la Rosa and teammate Eddie Irvine were hit by trouble during today's session, with the Spaniard's car suffering a throttle problem in the afternoon. De la Rosa was forced to push his car back into the pitlane so his mechanics could fix the problem.

However, despite the troubled session, the Jaguar driver enjoyed a promising start, posting the seventh quickest time of the day.

"A frustrating morning which has cost us valuable lap time," said de la Rosa. "My morning stint suffered because of troubles with my throttle pedal and things got worse when I encountered a misfire problem. Nothing that I would classify as serious issues, but we have not taken full advantage of the track time on offer.

"The limited running that I did manage was quite promising in that the car seems better suited to this circuit than the tight, twisty circuits we have raced at recently. The weather will always play a critical role in determining the outcome tomorrow and it goes without saying that we do not need rain."

Irvine lost time when his car suffered a misfire, the Irishman also complaining about a problem with the brake balance. Irvine finished as ninth quickest, but claimed today's time did not reflect their true form.

"We are certainly not as quick as the timesheets would lead you to believe, but we aren't that slow either," he said. "The Michelin tyre seems to be in good shape and we'll have to see where we come out in the wash tomorrow. We'll have to take full advantage of tomorrow's warm-up sessions in an effort to compensate for today's mileage shortage.

"Losing track time isn't a problem when you have no issues but is a double-disaster when you are trying to fix problems and beat the clock."