Jordan's show reliability in Australia

By Phil Giles
March 6 2005

The Toyota engine's reliability gave Jordan drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Taigo Monteiro a solid drive through the Australian Grand Prix to finish in 15th and 16th places respectively.

The team's final qualifying run (unseen by British Terrestrial TV viewers) dropped them back up the grid with the Mclaren's of Kimi Raikonnen and Juan Pablo Montoya leapfrogging the Jordan pair. But starting positions of 12th and 14th showed that the rookies were in with a chance of a decent race result.

Whilst lining up on the grid, Narain was interviewed by Martin Brundle, who asked him if he was going to keep an eye on his mirrors for the World Champ starting from 18th on the grid. Supremely confident Narain said that he would be concentrating on his own race and that Mr Schumacher would have to find his own way around him!

As it came to pass, Mr Schumacher didn't have to try too hard. Narain had an empty grid slot in front of him when Kimi stalled his engine at the end of the parade lap. Another new regulation came into force, the cars were sent back out for another parade lap and Kimi's Mclaren was wheeled off to start from the pit lane.

Narain however had a shocker of a start and was dropped back to 18th by the end of the start finish straight. Tiago had a better start in that he managed to get himself in front of Narain's EJ15.

As the race unfolded, the Jordan duo mostly kept the car on the grey stuff. Tiago managed a spin but kept the engine in and kept running. Narain ran wide onto the grass a few times, however this is to be expected with the lack of running and knowledge of the track.

At the end of the day, 15th and 16th is a better result than most of the pundits were expecting. 25% of our poll respondents expected either a DNF or a Double DNF.

Narain said afterwards: "I had a very bad start and then stayed behind Monteiro for a while. After the first pit stop, I pushed a lot and it was a trouble-free race. It is very good to finish the first Grand Prix of the season and I am looking forward to the next race, even though the weather conditions will be much warmer and humid."

"The goal was to finish the race and this is what we managed to achieve." said Tiago. "We are not the only team apparently, as all the cars seemed pretty reliable. As I said during the weekend, we need to finish races and collect as much information as possible. There are so many things I have learnt today and that is the most important. For the next race, I would like to make some changes to my seat position and my seat belt. I had a great start but then I lost a lot of time when people were overtaking me so I have to work on that but otherwise I am very happy to have finished the race."

Sporting Director Trevor Carlin said: "We are very glad we finished the year’s first Grand Prix. We got both cars to the finish and that is an achievement, even though it would have been nice to finish a bit higher up the results table. Now we are looking forward to going to Malaysia and if possible improving the car a little bit."

"Before the Grand Prix our aim was to get both cars to the end - so I am very happy that they finished the race in the same conditions they started in and that there were no nasty surprises. " Commented new team boss Colin Kolles.

So was it worth watching ITV's coverage from 2am. Well, yes. The race for the title has started with niet points from Mr Schumacher who struggled with the lack of new rubber and 16 for Renault who are looking very strong. Alonso was awarded the drive of the day with Ex-Jordan favourite Giancarlo Fisichella taking a well deserved win.

I'm off back to bed to get some kip before the replay starts.