After bitter disapointment in Monaco where both Jaguars retired early in the race with mechanical problems, the first North American race of 2003 brought Jaguar Racing and Mark Webber a couple more precious points. While there is still a lot of progress to make, solid work paid off on a track where engine performance is critical and brakes take a beating. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is for the most part a stop and go cicuit, lacking high speed corners,instead made of a number of straights interupted by chicanes or hairpins. Strong acceleration and good traction out of slow corners is equally important as reliable and lasting brakes.

Friday running was hampered by rain and unfortunately for Antonio Pizzonia who topped the practice time sheet, the times were for the most part meaningless... When track conditions improved on Saturday, Webber managed to qualify the R4 in 6th place only 6/10 of second behind the Williams BMW of pole sitter Ralf Schumacher; Pizzonia's performance was good enough for 13th place. Webber's time was only 1/10 behind reining world champion Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.

Unfortunately, we've been thru this before... good pace in practice and qualifying but everything falling apart during the race with lack of pace, realiability problems or just plain bad luck. Sunday however, with sunny warm weather, Webber ran a clean race staying well on the pace landing himself and the team 2 much needed points if Jaguar hopes to stay close to other midfield team like Jordan (also powered by Cosworth), BAR and Sauber. Pizzonia experienced brake problems near the very end of the race and was still classified although 4 laps down and in 10th place, behind the Minardi of Jos Verstappen (also Cosworth powered)

So far this year, Australian Mark Webber has been one of the revelation for his solid performances in qualifying. Unfortunately, while he and the R4 had the pace during one lap, reliability and consistency over a race distance had been elusive so far making these 2 points very precious...