Marques' weekend ends early.

European-Minardi driver Tarso Marques will not be competing in this weekend's British GP after the Brazilian failed to put in a time in yesterday's qualifying session, which was within the 107% rule.

The stewards of the meeting also later rejected the team's request that Marques might be allowed to start the race despite not making the 107% qualifying time. The FIA released the following statement: "The Stewards of the Meeting have decided that there is no exceptional circumstances which would allow car number 20 (Tarso Marques) to take part in the Warm-Up or the Race."

Marques' best lap was a 1 minute 26.506 seconds nearly half a second outside the 107% limit, which was 1 min 26.078secs. The Minardi driver said: "Today has been extremely disappointing, but at least I can take comfort from the fact I know I drove as hard as I could. Unfortunately, a throttle problem with the engine after my second run prevented me from improving my time in the way I normally would have expected."

"Making matters worse, there was insufficient time remaining to change the settings of the spare car from Fernando Alonso's to mine. I therefore went out in my normal race car for the final run, but was unable to improve my lap time."