Jordan "We are where we expected to be"

By Phil Giles
March 19 2005

Unlike the Australian Grand Prix, the first qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix threw up very little surprise for the Jordan duo Narain and Tiago qualifying in 17th and 18th places respectively.

Narain's lap was quite conservative, looking after his Bridgestone tyres for tomorrows qualifying and the race.  "The heat here will be hard on them during the race." he said earlier, confessing that "It was not the best lap I could have done on this circuit but it was ok in the end."

Tiago said that he was happy with his lap, despite being out run by his team mate for the second time over one lap. "I made two little mistakes" and this would have cost him a few tenths on the lap, however his time is still close to Narain's and he can see that he'll be there or thereabouts for the rest of the year.

Temperatures are expected to rise for the race tomorrow so we can't expect lap times to drop through qualifying two.  17th and 18th appear to be the best that the team can achieve at this time.

Trevor Carlin said “Today’s first qualifying session was a steady performance by both drivers. Under the circumstances of an unknown track for Tiago and Narain and the hot weather conditions, we qualified where we expected to be."

Thanks to ITV (despite them having two extra digital channels), no one has yet seen their laps and until about 1pm later today, no body will so its unfortunate that we can't comment directly on how the lap seemed to us casual observers.

Fernando Alonso has taken the provisional pole, with ex-Jordan racers Jarno Trulli second and Giancarlo Fisichella in third.