Webber blames Villeneuve for poor lap

The Jaguar driver followed Villeneuve in the running order and the Canadian BAR-Honda driver went off the road twice on his flying lap leaving muck and debris all over the track for Webber to negotiate.

"It's a big shame given the potential of the car but there was little I could do," said Webber. "Jacques (Villeneuve) did a great job of messing up the track and compromising grip. It's a tight track and given how close the lap times are between teams, everyone is pushing that extra bit further for an extra tenth and these things happen.

"The car has been performing impressively all weekend and to have missed out on its true potential is disappointing, but that's one lap qualifying for you! It's a long race tomorrow and with some very clever strategy work, I'm sure we can still make a significant contribution to the race, albeit from 17th on the grid."

Webber's team-mate Antonio Pizzonia provided some consolation, recording his best qualifying performance of the season to start eighth on the grid.

"We made some set-up adjustments to the car during the morning warm-up and the results are good," said Pizzonia. "I am, however, slightly disappointed not to have done better because of an error in turn six where I think we lost around three tenths. The margin separating the top ten is one second and three tenths would have put us in P5."