Villeneuve: We'll be Stronger in the Race

Jacques Villeneuve believes his BAR team will be stronger in tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix following a poor qualifying session today.

Canadian Villeneuve, son of the late Ferrari hero Gilles, was the first man out on the track after spinning full circle within sight of the finish in Friday's first one-lap session.

The 1997 champion ended up 14th on the grid, leaving the BAR driver a tough task to score points in Montreal for the first time since his debut season in 1996 and on the 25th anniversary of his father's win.

"Like most of the teams we only got a few laps in the dry so the set-up isn't optimised," said the Canadian. "I think we'll be stronger in the race - not as strong as we would be in a wet race but we can certainly improve on qualifying. This is always an exciting race so I'm looking forward to it."

Villeneuve's teammate Jenson Button also endured a disappointing day, finishing in 17th position.

"My qualifying lap was poor from the beginning," admitted Button. "I had very low grip throughout and the car wasn't handling at all well, then the rears locked up in the last corner. Even without that problem it wouldn't have been a very impressive lap.

"It's very disappointing to be starting the race from 17th. It looks like it's going to be dry as well so from this position we have a lot of hard work to do to make the best of things tomorrow once we are able to get more heat into the tyres."