SAUBER PETRONAS drivers Felipe Massa and Jacques Villeneuve finished 16th and 17th respectively after today's first practice sessions for the British Grand Prix.

Jacques Villeneuve: "When I spun in Turn 6 I had just come out of the pits on cold tyres and was driving really slowly, just checking what was behind me. It was like being on dry tyres in the wet every time we came out of the pits because it is too cold to generate good tyre temperatures. I wasn't happy at all with the balance today. I had understeer everywhere except Copse, where I had oversteer. Then I hit something on the track and put a dent in the front suspension and damaged the aerodynamics a little, and we were not able to get that fixed completely. We will have some new parts tomorrow and I'm sure we'll be more competitive."

Felipe Massa: "As usual, or so it seems lately, I got traffic on my lap on new tyres! Without that I could have done a low 1m 21s for sure. The car is very good on long runs and I'm very happy with it, so our situation is a lot better than it looks."

Willy Rampf (Technical Director): "Our positions today do not reflect our true level of performance. Felipe was held up by traffic on his run with new tyres, and we were unable to repair aerodynamic damage that Jacques experienced after hitting some debris because the spare components were in a truck that was delayed in traffic getting to the circuit. Some revised front wings have now arrived, so we will be in better shape tomorrow."

2005 British Grand Prix - Main Page
2005 British Grand Prix - Team and Driver Friday Practice Reports Page

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