Villeneuve down but not out

"When you have that many things go wrong you have to laugh or you would cry," he said.

"Effectively, he had only two qualifying runs instead of the normal four," explained technical director Malcolm Oastler. The Canadian's Honda engine blew on his first run forcing him to run 1.9 kilometres back to the pits. The 1997 World Champion then spun on his second fast lap.

Before he had a chance to take a third tilt at a decent grid position he was called in for a random check by officials and ran out of time to improve.

"The run back to the pits was not really a problem. Unfortunately, the spare car had been sitting in the sun and it was quite hot when I climbed into it.

"I spun, but I had enough fuel for a final attempt," he added. "Unfortunately, on the way into the pits, I was stopped at the weighbridge and there wasn't enough time left to go out again.

"Whether it's 17th or 14th position makes very little difference. We can afford to take risks in the race tomorrow and just see what happens."

"As a team we didn't get a lot of speed out of our cars today," admitted Oastler. "We've had a bit of a rough day," he added.