Villeneuve's little reminder

Since winning the world championship in 1997, the Canadian has seldom had the equipment to demonstrate his talent, but on Sunday a combination of a daring race strategy, Bridgestone tyres and a slightly improved BAR 004 enabled his to run as high as third.

A drive-through penalty (for hitting Heinz-Harald Frentzen on the first lap) cost him a chance of a points finish, which was confirmed when he retired on the last lap, but nevertheless it was a battling performance which saw him pass more cars than any other driver and set the fifth fastest lap.

"I'd forgotten what racing is like and today was a little reminder," said Villeneuve. "I was able to pass a lot of people and took advantage of the first Safety Car to come in for my first pit-stop. We took the decision to run a two-stop strategy because of where I was on the grid and that was really working out for me for the first half of the race, but what really cost us today was the penalty.

"Towards the end of the race we knew there was a problem because we were losing hydraulic pressure, then the engine let go on the last lap. It's been a better race for me than the rest of the weekend though."