French GP: Jaguar Friday notes

A typically hot and dry Magny-Cours circuit greeted the spectators today who arrived to watch the Friday Free Practice sessions. Significantly higher temperatures than the somewhat wet and colder British Grand Prix were appreciated by everyone and no more so than Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa. Both Jaguar drivers felt that the Michelin tyres worked well with the revised aerodynamic package on the Jaguar R3. Eddie and Pedro managed a best of 6th and 8th places respectively from today's two one-hour long sessions. The team worked though their usual Friday agenda of set-up work and tyre evaluation.

Niki Lauda CEO and Team Principal

"A pleasing start to our French Grand Prix weekend, but it's way too early to read into anything. Friday lap times are notoriously deceptive and while our times are pleasing, it is impossible to say where we rank alongside the competition -- something we will find out at 1400hrs tomorrow. We are running the Cosworth CR-3 engine today and for qualifying and the race, we will use the latest CR4."

"Neither driver reported any major problem today and all efforts will now be focused on getting the best from this new package which we are still learning about. The Michelin tyres are working well at their home race and while I cannot make any predictions about the weekend, one thing is for sure, we'll do a better job here than we did at Silverstone! We understand the new aero package better, the weather is to our liking and we are better prepared all-round."

Eddie Irvine

"I ran through the usual Friday checklist of set-up work, balance adjustments and tyre scrubbing. We need to understand one or two things better, but I am generally pleased with where we are. The R3 feels much better around here than it did at Silverstone and our three-day Monza test last week has helped us. The tyres are performing very well and I've suffered no problems so far. I didn't get enough clean laps today and found myself stuck in traffic several times. There is still more time in the car that we haven't yet extracted and the aim will now be to study the data to see what else we can exploit to our advantage."

Pedro de la Rosa

"We used the two sessions to full advantage today and suffered no issues. The car feels reasonably well balanced around this circuit and combined with tomorrow's morning warm-up sessions, we should be much better prepared for qualifying here than was the case at Silverstone two weeks ago. The team is working diligently on understanding the new aero package and combined with the strength of the Michelin tyre here, I am pleased with what we are learning and how we are applying it. The ultimate test faces us tomorrow in the shape of qualifying and until then, it's not worth reading too much into today's final positions."

Eddie Irvine
Position: 6th
Best time: 1:14.983
Laps: 39
Chassis: R3-05

Pedro de la Rosa
Position: 8th
Best time: 1:15.179
Laps: 46
Chassis: R3-04 T-Car: R3-06

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