Villeneuve: I tried too hard

The Canadian said that the inability of his car to use the full grip provided by a new set of tyres led to him trying too hard to make up time, although he was confident of a better showing in the race.

"We couldn't get the best out of new tyres this afternoon," he said. "I tried to compensate but I drove too aggressively and made a big mistake in turn one, which basically cost me the lap. 12th isn't too bad because a mistake like that could have cost more. We should be ok for the race because the car is very quick in race trim.

"A lot of people were trying too hard today and I was one of them. If you do a slow out-lap to look after your tyres you can end up going too slow and you don't get enough heat in the tyres. It's a difficult balance and the one's who got it wrong are the one's who made mistakes."

Villenueve is still confident of a good performance in tomorrow's race, because of the nature of the A1-Ring. He said: "This is a good track for overtaking and our grid position doesn't reflect our actual speed, so it should be a fun race. It's always a very interesting first lap here and the people who survive that end up having a fun race. I hope I'm one of them."