It may be too much for his home-town fans to hope that Jacques Villeneuve will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his father Gilles's maiden Formula One victory here by claiming pride of place on the podium after tomorrow's Canadian Grand Prix.

But a heavily redesigned Williams FW20 may well allow the world champion to produce his most convincing performance of the season.

There is still much to do, though. Despite the revised car's obvious potential, the local hero could only finish a disappointing 16th in the first free practice session after his engine cut out and stranded him on the circuit.

Villeneuve was left to spectate from the Williams garage as Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F300 battled with the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard for fastest time. The all-conquering McLarens looked under pressure for the first time this season, Hakkinen spinning twice and then sliding into a barrier before eventually reclaiming the fastest time by 0.3 seconds ahead of the Ferrari.

Coulthard also had an off-track moment and then ripped his car's nose section off on one of the marker cones at the chicane before the pits. The Scot finished fourth fastest behind Giancarlo Fisichella's Benetton.

Coulthard's incident came only minutes after Johnny Herbert's Sauber lost its front wing on the final corner before the pits, scattering debris all down the straight before he stopped the car just beyond the end of the pit lane. Since he had also lost time with brake problems, the Englishman did very well to post 11th fastest time.

From the start of free practice Villeneuve had expressed his confidence in the car, both he and his team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen reporting that its handling felt much more stable and progressive.

The Williams modifications include changes to the rear-suspension geometry, repositioned exhaust pipes and revised aerodynamics. Before coming here Villeneuve tested these changes at Monza, where he split the McLarens of Coulthard and Hakkinen to give the Williams team a timely lift.

"The car is now much better," he said. "We haven't quite found the limit yet because we are still doing work on the set-up. But it is getting better and represents a very positive step.

"But the basic problem is that the McLarens are still so fast and we are trying to catch up. We are aiming for a place on the podium here and hopefully we will be the ones leading the chase of the McLarens."

Like Williams, Ferrari were also benefiting from a further revised Goodyear tyre compound which both teams hoped would enable them to chisel into the superior performance of McLaren's Bridgestone rubber. The first signs were promising, with the top six practice times covered by less than a second.

Further back, Damon Hill was having a much better time than at Monaco last month, his Jordan Mugen-Honda behaving much more predictably on this circuit where aerodynamic down force is not so important. "In many ways this is similar to Imola in that the priority is to have a car which has good brakes and good horse power," said Hill. "It has a tight, slippery first section, which is like a street circuit, while the rest is hairpins and chicanes."

The Jordan technical director Gary Anderson was a notable absentee from the paddock, preferring to stay at the team's Silverstone headquarters supervising an aerodynamic development programme which should bear fruit in time for next month's British GP.

Hill finished the day ninth fastest, five places ahead of his team-mate Ralf Schumacher, and both men feel confident they can qualify in the top 10.