Qualifying Changes Approved for Silverstone

The latest raft of Formula One qualifying changes were given the go-ahead at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday after the team bosses unanimously signed an agreement to introduce a new format at next month's British Grand Prix.

The changes were initially proposed at the European Grand Prix last month (May) with two sessions of 20 minutes sandwiching a 20-minute break and times aggregated from both sessions.

McLaren-Mercedes boss Ron Dennis confirmed: "The final version of qualifying procedures was agreed and signed off by the teams today. It will be introduced at Silverstone."

But originally proposed 20-minute sessions will be extended to 25 minutes with a ten-minute break after appeals from television companies that the mid-session wait was too long.

And team boss Eddie Jordan said: "Television could not have a break of that length. But in the ten minutes they will try to make coverage with Jordan and Minardi and the teams who wouldn't get the coverage in the main sessions."

Each driver will have to run six laps in each session to ensure there is plenty of on-track action throughout the 25 minutes but while the changes are unanimously agreed they have not been fully welcomed by all team bosses.

The current system of single lap qualifying was only introduced at the start of last year and had reasonable success, mixing up grid positions and punishing mistakes made under pressure.

The format was changed this season to bring both sessions together on the Saturday but the first session, which decides running order for the second, is now immediately superseded and it is unpopular with television companies.

Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix here Saturday, however, proved the system can work as Ralf Schumacher claimed pole in a nail-biting finish and the usually dominant Ferrari team finished well down the order.

And Jordan said: "I don't think we should have changed it at all. I thought it was quite exciting today. You want to see can the guy do it and he has to do it on that lap. I didn't think it was that bad."

The changes outlined in the signed document still have to be approved by the FIA's World Motorsport Council at a meeting on June 30 but that is understood to be merely a formality.