Canadian GP Jaguar Friday notes

Today's two hour-long Free Practice sessions allowed the Jaguar Racing team to evaluate its new aerodynamic package for the Jaguar R2 in low down force configuration for the first time since its introduction at the Monaco Grand Prix. The results were encou raging as the team worked through a programme of tyre and set-up combinations to leave Eddie Irvine in third position and Pedro de la Rosa in fourteenth position. Eddie was able to use new tyres during his session and while Pedro selected new Michelin's at the close of the session, he was unable to complete a quick lap on new rubber before the session ended.

Eddie Irvine
"We ran through our programme successfully and concentrated in particular on set-up. The Michelins look good on one hand and not so good on the other. I'm not going to go into detail about this but there's certainly pros and cons to the tyres around this c ircuit. The car didn't feel as good as I expected it to around here but overall I'd say we are in good shape. There are some new bits on the car and I don't at this stage know exactly what impact they are having. We are still evaluating these changes and w ill continue to do so in the run-up to qualifying tomorrow."

Pedro de la Rosa
"That was a productive session apart from the end when I didn't have enough time left to try new tyres. We followed our plan very well today and the car feels reasonably well balanced. I don't really have any issues or problems at this stage and I expect t o qualify well tomorrow. I like this circuit and our new aero package seems to be coping quite well with the demands placed upon it. It's too early to begin making predictions about this weekend and we still have some work to get through tomorrow morning b efore we are fully prepared for qualifying."

Bobby Rahal, Chief Executive Officer & Team Principal
"There were some good signs of progress in today's session and I'm reasonably happy with the new aerodynamic package which is demonstrably better than before although we need to keep working on it. I think we showed today that we can be competitive with th e BARs and the Jordans and we ran quite heavy fuel loads today. Pedro didn't have enough time to run with new tyres but overall I am pleased with our first day's efforts."

-Jaguar