Villeneuve Surprised by Pace

The Sauber driver, racing in his home Grand Prix for the first time in two years, posted the 13th quickest time in today's second practice session.

The result surprised Villeneuve, who admitted he was expecting to be further off the pace.

"The car was quite nicely balanced and we had a better day than we expected," said the Canadian. "It's the same car, but it seems better suited to tracks where you have chicanes and heavy braking, like Imola.

"The surface is grippier than last year, mainly because of the new asphalt, so that helped. But here's a good day on a Friday and ultimately it meant only 13th place."

Villeneuve's teammate Felipe Massa echoed the Canadian's thoughts after finishing in 14th position.

"That session was quite okay," said Massa. "We seem more competitive here than at other tracks recently. The pace of the car was reasonable and there was good grip on the new surface, although it is still bumpy going into the hairpin and down the main straight.

"My only problem was that I had yellow flags on my two laps on new tyres so I wasn't able to make use of them. There's more to come from me because of that, so it doesn't look too bad."