Webber Blames Villeneuve for Slippery Track

Australian Mark Webber blamed BAR driver Jacques Villeneuve for compromising his chances of a good performance in today's qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Canadian Villeneuve, who had set the fourth fastest time in first qualifying, made several errors on his flying lap, going wide a couple of times and putting dirt on the track when there was still four drivers left to go.

Jaguar's Webber, third in Friday's first qualifying, went wide at the first Castrol corner and was pushed back to 17th alongside Briton Justin Wilson in a Minardi.

"A big shame given the potential of the car but there was little I could do," said Webber. "Jacques 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 very impressively all weekend and to have missed out on its true potential is disappointing, but that's one-lap qualifying for you."

Webber was outqualified by his Brazilian teammate Antonio Pizzonia, who put on his best qualifying performance of his rookie season to post the eighth fastest time.

"I am, however, slightly disappointed not to have done better because of an error in turn six where I think I lost around three tenths," said Pizzonia. "The margin separating the top ten is one second and three-tenths would have put in P5.

"Nonetheless, given the improvements we made to the car this morning, I am very happy and looking forward to racing tomorrow."