Villeneuve's partial eclipse of the stars

Canadian GP: Favourite son laps up early limelight but will be lost in the big teams' slipstreams when the race begins

If anyone doubts David Richards' commitment to turning round the fortunes of the BAR Honda team – very much under the spotlight here thanks to lead driver Jacques Villeneuve – you need only look at the lengths to which the team went to prepare two heavily revised new cars for the French-Canadian and his team-mate Olivier Panis to race this weekend.

While the main team were testing the basic car at Silverstone last week, test driver Anthony Davidson was pounding round the Paul Ricard circuit in France putting miles on the modified machine. The logistics of running two separate, simultaneous efforts are one of the reasons why F1 costs what it does. Winning – or just competing – does not come cheap.

Yet, when Panis and Villeneuve rewarded all the effort with the seventh and ninth fastest times after first practice here on Friday, the former champion was the first to play down expectations of a much-needed upturn in performance. "Yeah," he said laconically, "we end up being quick on Friday, but by taking fuel out so it looks good."

This might not be quite what Richards, 50 last week and already highly successful in the sport both as a rally co-driver and more recently as the mastermind behind the World Rally Championship-winning Prodrive team, wanted to hear. But Villeneuve went on to say that he believes that the changes to the car are a genuine improvement. "They feel good, they definitely feel good. I think it's the first time in four years where you feel there's an improvement on the car, so that is a very nice thing. But I think it will be very, very difficult for us to be in the top 10 tomorrow because I don't think we are that competitive."

BAR's trend continued on Saturday morning, much to the delight of local scribes. But again Villeneuve played things down prior to qualifying, the first time in any GP weekend that all of the cars run with directly comparable tyre choices, fuel loads and aerodynamic set-ups. "Of course there will be some extra pressure now because people think we are competitive because we had a good Friday, so I expect a little bit of disappointment for them. But it's great that the crowd is still positive after four very bad years. There is a little bit of family feeling with the fans here and I think that is what has helped keep everybody motivated. I guess they just have fun."

Chauvinism is very much in the air this weekend. The Journal de Montreal raised eyebrows with its fanciful suggestion that Normand Legault, the organiser of the Canadian GP, is the man who will eventually take over running the sport. "I would not presume to take over from Mr Ecclestone," Legault said coyly, much to the relief of those who had sat for half an hour waiting for his ubiquitous and sinister black-clad security men to stem the endless flow of pedestrians crossing on to the Ile Notre Dame and allow a few vehicles in. They took a view of Mr Legault's organisational skills that embraced drunken parties and breweries.

In the pit lane the main talking point has been the dramatic hike in lap speeds, partly due to minor changes to the track but also an indication of fresh intensity in the ongoing tyre war between Bridgestone and Michelin. Monaco winner David Coulthard in his McLaren-Mercedes just edged out Juan Pablo Montoya's BMW Williams by the end of Friday's running, both of them on the French rubber and already quicker than Michael Schumacher's pole position time from the 2001 race. But Schumacher himself, the race favourite, was only tenths behind them despite clipping a wall, and took over the initiative early yesterday morning as lap times eclipsed his pole time by more than a second.

Though Ferrari lost one car midway through the morning when Rubens Barrichello crashed while trying to better Schumacher's time, the fight continued with Montoya and Schumacher swapping fastest lap, more than two seconds faster than the German's 2001 best.

"I think from what we saw last week in Monaco, the tyres can be crucial for qualifying," the Colombian said. "A lot of races can be decided where you qualify. I think it will play a big part as always, but for BMW and everyone it's a good track."

BMW Williams desperately need a win to stem Schumacher's relentless advance to a fifth World Championship. Last year, Montoya's team-mate Ralf Schumacher beat his brother to create another little bit of history as the duo became the first brothers to finish first and second in a Grand Prix. Back then it was a close fight between the siblings, and this year's race could similarly be decided by the drivers' grid positions. The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve isn't quite Monaco, but as Mark Webber admitted: "There's so little run-off here that it might as well be a street race. In places it's very similar to Monte Carlo."

A fortnight ago a superior traction-control system helped Coulthard to out-accelerate Montoya off the line, and thereafter the Scot managed to control the race. "We've had trouble with our system in three races," Montoya admitted glumly. "Monaco, Brazil and Austria. I don't know what's going on."

With qualifying set up for a battle between Montoya and Schumacher, the World Champion could afford to smile. You can look hard, but it's getting harder by the race to see any shortcomings in his hyper-reliable red car.