Villeneuve pleased with ninth

The 1996 and '97 British GP winner set his best time on the third of his four runs, but felt he could have gone even quicker were it not for a minor gearbox problem.

"I'm quite pleased with ninth," he admitted. "The car has been working well all weekend in wet and dry conditions and, generally, it seems to suit Silverstone's high speed-corners. My quick lap wasn't as good as it could have been because the gearbox didn't work properly on some downshifts and I lost a little time.

"We're usually a little better off in the race so I think we'll be OK tomorrow now we've seen that the car can be good here whatever the conditions. I think we would be slightly more competitive in the wet, mainly because the Bridgestone tyres are better suited."

Olivier Panis made it a good session for BAR by taking 13th, ensuring that both cars start the race ahead of the Honda-powered Jordans. The Frenchman was not happy with his position though, and felt he could have done much better had he not suffered with a series of niggling problems.

"I had two different problems in practice this morning, an electrical problem in the first session and an engine problem in the second," he said. "As a result, I was only able to achieve two fast laps and I didn't have the chance to work on a proper dry set-up. I'm not satisfied with 13th position at all, even though I'm only a tenth from Jacques."