Jordan start slow in Germany

17th
By Phil Giles
August 1 2003

Jordan have got off to a slow start at Hockenheim for the first qualifying session of the German Grand Prix. Ralph again out qualified his Italian team mate finishing 16th fastest with Fisi one place behind in 17th.

“It’s my first time at Hockenheim and things are going pretty well for me this weekend." Said Ralph.  "I’m hopeful that there’s more lap time to come, especially in the last sector.  We will improve the car a little bit more and see where we end up.”

“Today was nothing special and we are quite far off the pace." Groaned Giancarlo.  "Admittedly, my lap wasn’t fantastic, but it’s another difficult weekend for us.”

“Giancarlo reported that the rear of his car was a bit nervous during his qualifying lap and Ralph had a bit too much understeer." said Gary Anderson.  "When the temperature comes up, we lose grip.  It’s very confusing but that’s the way it is at the moment.  Zsolt Baumgartner did a very competent job in his first proper test session with us and it was good to collect data from three cars for the first time.”

Zsolt drove a third EJ13 during this mornings test session.  “This was my first real test with Jordan Ford, although I did a 50km shakedown at Silverstone and some straight line testing recently." He beamed.  "I enjoyed it enormously. It was a great feeling and I am happy I made no mistakes, didn’t crash and did not damage the car. I think it was a positive session and I was able to carry out all the tasks set me by the engineers.”