Australian GP Jordan notes

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX SUNDAY 8TH MARCH 1998 THE RACE

Damon Hill had a solid if not explosive start to the 1998 Fl season with the Benson and Hedges Jordan team. Having qualified in lot" place, he finished the race 8th, two positions behind a points finish. Ralf Schumacher had a very disappointing race after encouraging performances during the weekend. His race ended afler only one lap when his car was touched by the Stewart Ford of Magnussen as both cars went into corner 5. RaIf, Magnusson and Takagi, behind them, spun onto the gravel.

DAMON HILL Finished 8th

The result today reflects more the fact that we did not qualify well, rather than that we had an average race. I want to go away and look at the telemetry data so that we can work on finding some more speed on the car, but I was encouraged by my performance toward the latter part of the race. I saw Wurz up ahead and pushed to catch up, but then went off which made me cross with myself It seems that the key to speed is to get angry, as after that I really picked up. The stan was good, although I thought I had made up more places than in fact I had. It is great to have got the first race under my belt as it sives me something to think about and to get my teeth into."

RALF SCHUMACHER Did not finish Accident

'I had quite a bad start and lost several places The problem was I could not find any way into the centre so I had to stay on the outside, which was not a good thins to do. Then going in to turn 5 I was touched by Magnussen. It was just a racing incident - I mean he did not do it on purpose. My mistake was to be so far back."

EDDIE JORDAN, TEAM OWNER

'We still have a lot of work to do, that's for sure! Damon's last stint was very positive - I think he did a good job. The pit stops were disappointing; we lost sometime on the first one because of a problem with the retbelling catch. It was important to finish the race and we need to build on that and see how we can catch up with the opposition who are clearly very strong. If we can manage to qualify higher, our race results should irrn'rove greatly."

HIROTOSHI HONDA, PRESIDENT OF MUGENEHONDA

'It was good to finish the first race and we appreciate the good job Damon has done, But our target is to win and we are a very long way from that. From our side we can look to see what we can work on with the engine power, but I do not think there is much gap between the top engines. We have to work together with the team on the whole package."