Formula One: Irvine - I should have done better

Eddie Irvine admitted he should have qualified higher than his 13th place on the grid for the San Marino Grand Prix.

The Jaguar driver said his car was good enough to have qualified further up the grid for Sunday's race.

And the former Ferrari man believes his team need to understand their car better in order to get the most out of it.

Irvine said: "I'm disappointed not to have done better even though we expected to qualify around this position.

"I was suffering from understeer at the start and then the car appeared to be getting better.

"I don't know why, but I was seven-tenths quicker on my in-lap and with hindsight maybe we should have done a double run early in the session.

"Given that we have a new front tyre from Michelin and a new development of the Cosworth CR3 engine, I should have done better.

"The new engine is good and its driveability is very pleasing. We need to understand the car better.

"Right now, we are not getting the performance we need to be competitive in qualifying.

"The in-lap shows you what time the car is capable of so we need to understand that fully."

Team-mate Luciano Burti qualified two places down in 15th and added: "We probably could have done better, but not by much.

"My engine was misfiring and the gear downshifts were slow. Going through the corners, I was experiencing a surge in power which is why I ran onto the grass at turn three during my final run.

"I'm particularly disappointed because it looked like my best lap."