Saturday March 2nd, 2002

The Jaguar team endured a torrid qualifying session on Saturday, with Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa finishing only ahead of Minardi's Alex Yoong and Jordan's Takuma Sato, who was unable to set a time when the Melbourne circuit was dry.

Jaguar's nightmare, after major problems in pre-season testing, came true when both Northern Irishman Irvine and Spaniard de la Rosa were beaten by the Minardi of Australian newcomer Mark Webber. Irvine was 19th, de la Rosa 20th.

"We are not happy, things went wrong from the beginning," said de la Rosa. "I think we should be further up the grid. I am disappointed, I am not a happy man but tomorrow is a long race."

Jaguar, who struggled during winter testing with the Cosworth-powered R3, were forced to return to the drawing board after it was found that the front wing of the car was not designed correctly.

Both Irvine and de la Rosa were outqualified by Arrows drivers Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Enrique Bernoldi.

German Frentzen, driving the car which is powered by the same Cosworth engine used by Jaguar, finished the session in 15th place while teammate Bernoldi was 17th.

Published at 03:45:53 GMT