Friday March 29th, 2002

British American Racing driver Jacques Villeneuve was happy with the performance of his Bridgestone tyres in today's practice for the Brazilian Grand Prix, claiming that they have helped him move forward.

The 1997 World Champion, who has struggled this season with the Honda-powered 004 chassis, posted a promising ninth quickest time at Interlagos today, and praised the tyres from Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone.

"We had a good first session today with no mechanical problems," said the Canadian, who alongside the Ferrari drivers, was the only Bridgestone-shod runner in the top ten. "It's a better Friday than the first two races and the car certainly feels better than in Malaysia.

"The only real change we have for this race is the new Bridgestone tyres, which seem to be helping a lot at this track."

Teammate Olivier Panis was 13th quickest as the Brackley-based squad try to nest their first points of the 2002 season. The Frenchman was also satisfied with his day's work.

"Compared with Malaysia, this has been a better Friday for us," he said. "This morning we were running with racing fuel and we tried different set-ups. I had a small engine performance problem which took a little time away from me, but I think we have taken the right direction so far and we have a good idea which way we are going to go with the tyres."

Published at 20:18:14 GMT