Villeneuve Unsure of Sauber's Pace

Villeneuve, in the spotlight after a mistake at the Monaco Grand Prix cost his Sauber team what looked like a certain point-scoring finish, was only 19th quickest today, over four seconds off the pace.

The 1997 World Champion finished right behind his teammate Felipe Massa.

"Felipe and I were working on different programmes today," explained Villeneuve. "I was pretty happy with the balance of my car but I didn't get a good lap on my new tyres. There was a yellow flag partway round, so I had to lift.

"Overall, it's hard to say just where we are."

Massa admitted the handling of his car forced him into some driving errors during today's sessions, and vowed to work overnight to fix the problems ahead of tomorrow's qualifying.

"My car felt okay on used tyres, but I spoiled my run on new ones," Massa said. "The balance wasn't so good, and as a result I made some mistakes. I got Turn 10 wrong, and then braked too late for the chicane, locked the front tyres, and went straight on.

"We just need to do some more work on the set-up, then I can push again tomorrow."