Villeneuve: No regrets over Renault decision.

Jacques Villeneuve has insisted he has no regrets about his decision to join Renault for the final three races of the 2004 season, and says he is satisfied with his performance - despite failing to pick up any points.

The 1997 World Champion, who found himself without a drive this season after leaving BAR, joined the French team when Jarno Trulli departed after the Italian Grand Prix - giving him three races to reacclimatise himself with Formula One before a fulltime return in 2005 with Sauber.

A disappointing eleventh place in China was followed by an equally disappointing tenth place in Japan, and although he again finished in tenth, and out of the points, in Brazil, Villeneuve felt his performance was much improved on the previous two races.

"I'm very happy," he said after the race. "Suzuka was embarrassing in the race, but here it wasn't, even though it was the same finish. I was still tenth, but it was a good race."

Like his team mate Fernando Alonso, the Canadian gambled on dry tyres at the start of the race, and that at least allowed him to run near the sharp end throughout the first stint.

Villeneuve believes that it was the right decision to go with dry tyres, even though he wasn't able to match his team mate's great run to fourth place.

"It worked for Fernando," he said. "But then on the second lap I had a run on him, but I just didn't want to take the risk, because he was my team mate, and there was no point to both go off. Had it been another car, then I would have tried.

"It wasn't too bad. What was tricky was that so many cars were on intermediates and I was thinking they were on dry tyres. Seeing them hooked up to the track was tricky! The first two laps I was actually still behind Fernando, but then cars got in between us and then he went away."

Despite his lack of points, Villeneuve says he has no regrets over the decision to join Renault, insisting that, if anything, it will help his preparations for next season.

"Oh, definitely," he said, "it's not time lost. It will be very useful for next year. I'll have a few days off, and then back into training. I'm not tired from the season so I can get back into training easily!"