Panis Determined to Push for First Points

Frenchman Olivier Panis is determined to push hard on Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix to score his British American Racing team's first points of the 2002 season.

The BAR driver completed on Saturday's qualifying his best performance of the year, posting a promising ninth fastest time with the Honda-powered machine. Having failed to finish a race so far in five attempts, Panis is looking forward to a good result on Sunday.

"I'm really happy to qualify 9th today; it's great news for the team," admitted Panis. " I've been pushing hard all weekend and we've made good progress through each of the sessions. There's a chance I could have bettered that in my final run but Bernoldi was slowing on his in-lap and blocked me.

"Even so, I'm very pleased with what we have. We've put a lot into testing recently and that has helped me to get a good set-up for the last two Grands Prix. Last week's test in Estoril was very positive and I have been able to build on that progress here. I'm optimistic about tomorrow's race and ready to push for some points."

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve continued to struggle at the wheel of the second 004 chassis from the Brackley-based squad, the former World Champion unhappy with the set-up of his car.

"I've struggled to find the right set-up all weekend and for one reason or another we haven't been able to make enough progress," said Villeneuve after setting the 17th fastest time. "We had some improvement in practice this morning but I went into qualifying with a car I wasn't comfortable with."