Jaguar refuses to get carried away

Jaguar Racing boss Niki Lauda has talked down his team's chances of success at Suzuka in Japan this weekend, despite an impressive performance in free practice

The Austrian says he is not going to get carried away with both cars running in the top six after two hours of free practice today (Friday).

"The final classification times are not worth reading into," said Lauda. "We have a well-balanced car that works well through the slow- to medium-speed corners. The problem, however, is the longer high-speed corners and, to be honest, it's the same issue we have been fighting all season."

His drivers agreed, with third quickest Pedro de la Rosa saying: "To really get the best out of the package we have, we need more front and rear end grip. The car feels great through the Esses, but loses grip through the faster corners like 130R."

His team mate, Eddie Irvine, was sixth fastest and added: "I think we are going to struggle at this circuit. The tyres are good, but we are not pushing the optimum performance out of them. It's going to be tough and we've just got to do the best we can."