Jordan's "Frustrating Day".

Engine Troubles
By Phil Giles
April 20 2003

After the euphoria of their Brazilian win, Jordan came back down to earth with a bump when both EJ13's failed to finish the San Marino Grand Prix.

Ralph Firman was the first to feel the bite of F1 today when after 54 laps an oil line broke causing a fire in the engine and his retirement from the race.  Fisichella's engine failed five laps later.  Neither driver had been able to move up through the ranks today and were running well out of the points when they retired.

Giancarlo:
"I'm a bit disappointed.  I lost quite a lot of time on the pit stop and then more time to overtaking Trulli and a hydraulics problem and then I blew up the engine.  I lost a bit of time behind Ralph, we were on different strategies but we were at the same part of the track.  Anyway our pace wasn't too bad and I'm looking forward to the next race."

Ralph:
"I got held up by the Minardis at the start, but once I got clear of them I was able to push on quite hard although the car had a little bit of oversteer on the turn in to corners.  Later I had a clutch problem and after a couple of laps the engine packed up.  I am looking forward to the Silverstone test next week as the time in the car will be a great help to me.  I think I need to improve myself in qualifying but in the race I always seem to do a reasonably good lap time."

Gary Anderson:
“We first knew Ralph had a problem when he reported the clutch slipping, which we later discovered was caused by an engine problem which soon afterwards caused him stop. On Giancarlo's car something went wrong with the engine, there was a lot of smoke. We had a hydraulic problem as well but it stabilised and would have been okay for the last ten laps. When you're not in good condition it's best just to learn as much as you can about reliability. They say what a difference a day makes – well what a difference a week makes!”