Eddie Irvine yesterday showed that his storming drive to the Monaco podium wasn't just an isolated spike on an otherwise flatlined graph as he took his revised Jaguar R2 to third place in free practice ahead of tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix.

After racing to his first podium finish in almost 18 months Irvine was cautious of predicting a new beginning for his troubled team, saying that a package that worked within the strict parameters laid down by Monaco was not transferable to a circuit as vastly different as Montreal's Circuit de Villeneuve, where tight snaking streets are replaced by high speeds and hard braking over a dusty and bumpy circuit.

But yesterday, it appeared that a newly focused Jaguar team had used the two-week interval and a profitable test at Magny Cours to overturn Irvine's caveats and while the off-track controversy surrounding Adrian Newey's onoff transfer to the team occupied the headlines, in the background a previously tame cat was being provided with some claws.

Irvine though was still circumspect about his chances in the real competition of qualifying saying that the car was still presenting problems. "It's a step in the right direction. It wasn't a particularly good lap I have to say. The car is reasonable. It's not as good as I thought it was going to be. We have new parts again, which seem to be affecting the handling, even if they do seem to be making it a bit quicker. We didn't really have a chance to confirm how good they were at Magny Cours but we had to chance it.

"Whether it's good for this weekend: the jury's still out. We'll let people sweat a bit tonight and see what the true story is tomorrow."

Friday is just Friday, however. Times are irrelevant, it's impossible to know what fuel loads were being run, what set-ups were being tried. All true, but a third place on low fuel and in qualifying trim in Montreal is a positive start to the weekend.

Ferrari-style pace is not at his disposal with the still-difficult R2, however, and while yesterday's performance was an encouragement, it is unlikely that Irvine will be able to start low and finish high on Sunday.

The Irishman's best chance therefore would appear to be upping his game in qualifying.

While Irvine was stealing the limelight behind the twin McLarens of first-placed Mika Hakkinen and team-mate David Coulthard, Jordan's Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli had a mixed day with both doing solid groundwork but Frentzen's day ending badly when the German suffered a heavy crash at turn five at the close of the session. It was a none too gentle reminder of his Monaco-ending smash two weeks ago, a shunt that left him unable to complete a test session in Magny Cours.

His ninth-place time, just behind his team-mate was a satisfactory start to the weekend, however, and with the Williams of closest adversaries Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher within range at fifth and sixth Montreal looks like being a venue where Jordan can profit.

The major bar to Jordan claiming similar positions on the grid this afternoon are the BAR's of Honda-powered rivals Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve though suffered a major off-day yesterday planting his car into the tyre wall at the Pont de la Concorde turn. Spectacular for his home crowd but displeasing for the engineers who will have to toil overnight to put his wrecked race car together again. It left the Canadian 19th and stranded in the garage throughout the afternoon.

Afterwards Villeneuve hit out at Williams's Montoya, saying that the Colombian collided with him prior to the accident and while he wasn't blaming the Williams driver for the crash, the Colombian's reluctance to make way for a quicker car was becoming an unpleasant feature of his racing.

"I am upset with him because it must be the fifth or sixth time this year that he has blocked me," said the Canadian. "He's on a mission of some kind and I'll have to have a word with him.

"Normally when you get blocked, or if you do yourself, you try to get out of the way. Sometimes you don't make it but you still make an effort to try and give some room to the other person. With Juan Pablo it seems like every time he sees someone in his rear view mirrors he slows down and stays on the racing line purposefully. I don't understand what type of game he's trying to play."

Meanwhile, McLaren has insisted that an injunction obtained by Jaguar in the British high court High Court yesterday has no bearing on Newey's immediate future at McLaren.