Villeneuve Upbeat after Qualifying

The Sauber driver completed a strong performance in front of his home crowd and will start tomorrow's race from eighth place.

Villeneuve, unhappy with his car's pace so far this year, raised his spirits with today's showing and is now hoping for a good race.

"That was the most satisfying performance of my season so far, and I am very happy," said the Canadian. "Usually in qualifying you make a little mistake here or there, because you are on the limit - maybe you lock a wheel or miss an apex. But on that lap I didn't make a single mistake and it couldn't have been better.

"We know that qualifying is harder for us than the races, which seem to suit the C24 better, so it will be down to making a strong start tomorrow. The first corner here can be difficult, but if there is any incident hopefully we are sufficiently far up the grid to avoid it. That should be an advantage."

Villeneuve's teammate Felipe Massa finished down in 11th position, but the young Brazilian was nonetheless upbeat about his chances for tomorrow's race.

"My lap was reasonable for the strategy that we have chosen," said Massa. "There was a bit less grip than this morning, but we know that the car is better in the race so I am pretty confident and overall I'm happy.

"Tomorrow you'll see that we are even more competitive."