Austrian GP: Jaguar Friday notes

Today's two, one hour Free Practice sessions provided Jaguar Racing with an opportunity to work on the set-up of their cars ahead of tomorrow's crucial qualifying session. The slippery A1-Ring kept both Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa in the garage until 20 minutes into the first session when the other drivers had laid down enough rubber. Both Jaguar Racing drivers experienced trouble-free sessions and as per usual, the team used the Free Practice sessions to work on set-up and tyre evaluations. Pedro completed a total of 40 laps with a best time of 1:11.336s. Eddie completed a total of 43 laps and managed a best time of 1:11.608s. The notoriously temperamental weather has so far kept the rain at bay, but there is a 60% chance of rain tomorrow.

Niki Lauda - CEO and Team Principal

"A perfectly normal Friday for us with both drivers focusing on set-up and tyre evaluations. The circuit looked quite slippery in places and as we saw, this got the better of quite a few drivers. I am pleased, however, that none of our cars suffered from any problems today. The weather has been good to us and this is allowing us to get relatively more out of the tyres than we have done at previous races."

Pedro de la Rosa

"We ran our normal programme today and I am quite happy with the balance of the car. This is a strange circuit in the way that the track temperature changes so much between sessions. On top of that, you always have to acknowledge the high chance of rain - something that we obviously want to avoid at all costs."

Eddie Irvine

"A perfectly conventional job list for a Friday and no problems to report. The car feels pretty well balanced around this circuit, but let's wait and see tomorrow. It's always impossible to know what other teams are running in terms of fuel and tyres and until the qualifying hour starts tomorrow, there is little point in reading into today's lap times. Suffice to say that we are pleased with how things went today, but the real test isn't until tomorrow afternoon."

Pedro de la Rosa Position: 7th
Laps: 40
Best Time: 1:11.336
Chassis: R3-04

Eddie Irvine Position: 11th
Laps: 43
Best Time: 1:11.608
Chassis: R3-05

-jaguar-