French GP BAR Friday notes

British American Racing Honda are optimistic following a strong free practice session today. The drivers were relatively comfortable with the car and the team are confident that, although qualifying sessions have proved difficult so far this season, improvements have been significant enough to produce a better performance tomorrow.

Jacques Villeneuve Position: 3rd Best time: 1:15.224 (39 laps)

"It was a positive session today because we were able to do a lot of good work. We ran a little less fuel than normal to try to improve on our qualifying performance because that^Òs where we have the most problems. The car was running well this morning set-up wise so I^Òm very happy with the improvements. It looks like we will be able to really make the tyres work for us so we^Òre confident about tomorrow. We hope to be better in qualifying than we were at the previous race."

Olivier Panis Position: 11th Best time: 1:16.364 (20 laps)

"I'm quite positive about the car today. I made a mistake because the rear was locking under braking but I don't think it's a huge problem because Jacques had a very good day so I can take some of the information from Jacques' car. We compared the two different tyres and one is working very well. The car is going well today and we are optimistic that we can find a good set-up for the car ready for tomorrow. I'm looking forward to racing here at my home Grand Prix and in front of the French spectators."

Jock Clear, Race Engineer to Jacques Villeneuve

"We've put in a lot of laps today and done reasonably well on a circuit which is not usually very good for rear tyre degradation. However, we're not kidding ourselves that this is our realistic position. We have tested here so there are certain things that we don't need to evaluate but would normally evaluate on a Friday. We have been working more in the direction of qualifying which makes our position today look a little bit more impressive but we are aware of that fuel level. We know what the difference is and we know where we are in real terms. The tyres have worked very well, they're doing what Bridgestone said they would do so we^Òre looking forward to qualifying and are optimistic."

David Lloyd, Race Engineer to Olivier Panis

"We tested here last month and brought the set-up back here for this weekend so we were surprised to see the car behaving very differently this morning. We had to make some changes in between the sessions and, afterwards, Olivier was very happy with the car. It was a shame that he spun off at that stage but he thought the car felt really good and braked a little later. We've tried both of the new tyre compounds, we know which way we're going to go now and Olivier is very happy with the tyre."

k-BAR