Solid day for Jordan

Nick
By Phil Giles
May 30 2004

The rain that Jordan anticipated for today's European Grand Prix managed to stay away, but Jordan enjoyed their most promising Grand Prix weekend of the season so far.

The team have put in so much hard work over the last few months and it's starting to show in spades.  Even though the team didn't add to their two point tally, Nick and Giorgio brought home two reliable and steady race cars.  With Nick even taking time to complain about being held up by Klien's Jaguar.

Nick said afterwards. "I’m really happy with our performance over the weekend especially in the race. Finishing 10th, only two positions off the points, is positive - as was actually being able to fight and beat some other cars. I was pushing Felipe hard at the end, which was really good fun. With one more lap I might have overtaken him! I didn’t have a great start, so that is something we need to improve and practise, and then I was held up by Klien for a long time in the race, but that’s just racing. Our race performance is good but we need to see if we can improve qualifying. A big thanks to all the team as they are really doing a good job at the moment. If we keep improving at this rate I’m very pleased."

Giorgio suffered during the race with a transmission problem.  He had to hold off on his race pace but still brought the EJ14 home in 13th place.  "I was lucky to finish the race, to be honest, because for the last 25 laps I had a problem with the downshift. The first part of the race was not going badly and we were doing our maximum but after that this problem started and that was it. There’s not much else to say. I’m not very happy really as this has happened to me a few times."

James Robinson summed up the day for both of the drivers.  "It was a tough race for Jordan Ford today with Nick driving a very good, hard race. Some slower cars in the first part of the race cost him any chance of getting in the points. Once he got past those we were running on target and the Bridgestone tyres were performing consistently, but he had just lost too much time in the early part of the race. Giorgio drove well, and was up there with Nick but unfortunately he had a car problem that basically slowed his race and at the end he was driving to get the car over the line."

Eddie said:  "I’m glad that both our cars finished. Unfortunately we had a problem with Giorgio’s car but I think that was Nick’s best race drive for us. We seem to be making a bit of progress. Thanks to everyone in the team for their continued hard work."

The Jordan team can't stop for a breather!  After two races in two weekends, the team are now spending the next week in the garages at the Silverstone circuit in Northampton.  Both Giorgio and Nick are due to test for one day each during the three day test.  It's not know if Jos Verstappen who was due to test for the team will be replaced by either one of the two race drivers or if Friday driver Timo Glock will be on duty on Tuesday.

The test is the big tyre test before the British Grand Prix.  The circuit is open to the public for limited viewing.  As it's half term, there's no better place to bring the kids to watch at very least half of the teams zooming around the circuit and most importantly, it's free!