'Mystery' for Davidson who misses out by fraction.

Anthony Davidson says he is still unsure as to exactly what it was that spoilt his qualifying lap in Montreal and prevented him from escaping Q3 for today's Canadian Grand Prix around a track he admits is far from one of his favourites.

The Super Aguri ace - who has some prior experience of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve having already run around here in both 2004 and 2006, albeit only in practice - will start the race down in 17th on the grid after losing crucial time when Kimi Raikkonen went off directly ahead of him. He would ultimately miss out by a scant thousandth of a second, while team-mate Takuma Sato went on to demonstrate the potential of the SA07 by clinching eleventh place.

"I was just half a tenth off Taku and there was only a hundredth of a second between me and (Vitantonio) Liuzzi in Q1," the frustrated Briton told journalists at the track. "It was so close. Without what happened on the exit of turn ten I could easily have made it through.

"Kimi was on an in-lap and ran wide in front of me. Maybe he dragged some marbles onto the racing line as he rejoined. That's all I can think of. The rest is just a mystery. You can see on the data graph he just accelerated away on the exit much quicker than I did.

"I've never got on with this circuit; I just don't like the layout and how dusty it is. I love the city and country, but the track is rubbish! I hate it. It is challenging, but I just find it frustrating."

Davidson remains hopeful, however, of making up ground in the race, one that is renowned as being particularly arduous on both man and machine.

"Once our car is hooked up over a lap it's quick enough to be near the top ten, as Taku proved," he underlined. "I've just got to find a good strategy. It's a long, tough race around here, and lots of drivers make mistakes. Some are really struggling this weekend. I've made a few mistakes already, but nothing too drastic.

"The new tyres have made the circuit even more slippery, and that makes it difficult to find a good balance to be able to drive consistently, but I know I've got the speed in me and I know the speed is in the car too.

"To get into the top ten would be amazing, but I think pretty hard to expect from where I am on the grid. Twelfth or 13th would be a more realistic aim. I would be happy with that."