Jaguar gives credit to Michelin

Irvine will line up ninth on the grid for the French Grand Prix and said that he was encouraged by the progress made with the heavily revised R3.

"I'm obviously pleased with ninth place and very much looking forward to tomorrow's race," said the Ulsterman. "I'd say we have an outside chance of a point.

"Our three-day test at Monza last week was very helpful in understanding the new aero package better and I wish we had done more testing with it. Nonetheless, we have been reasonably quick here all weekend, but we must credit Michelin too for the tyre advantage they have brought here. This will inevitably flatter us a little, but there is no doubt that we have a better car."

Lauda praised Irvine for his performance, but added: "We must be careful about getting too carried away. The Michelin tyres have the upper hand here and combined with the somewhat odd nature of this circuit, we must acknowledge that our performance is down to a combination of all these things."

In contrast, Pedro de la Rosa endured a dreadful session. He lost hydraulic pressure as he left the pitlane in his race car, and was forced to switch to the spare. A front wheel sensor problem was then discovered on this car before an electrical problem forced him to stop out on the circuit. De la Rosa will line up 15th.