Chinese GP: Jordan Friday practice notes

Shanghai International Circuit proved to be a hit today, the Jordan drivers thoroughly enjoying their first outing at the Chinese track and the team's new third driver Robert Doornbos having the honour of being the first driver in history to complete a Formula One flying lap of the circuit.

Nick Heidfeld:

"It's great fun to be at a new circuit and the people here did a very good job. I really enjoyed the first corner, as I - and many other drivers - expected to. It's really special and very nice to drive, although it gave us a lot of graining understeer, especially in the beginning. We managed to improve the car but as it's a new circuit we will try many more things so we have a lot of work to do before tomorrow."

Timo Glock:

"It was cool to drive here today and I really like this circuit. In the first session I had problems with the car understeering and in my first outing I pushed too hard on the out lap. In the second session I lost some time because we had a hydraulic problem at the beginning and then at the end I was unlucky with traffic when I went out doing runs on new tyres. Although we had a couple of problems, overall the day was not too bad."

Robert Doornbos:

"I'd like to thank all the guys at Jordan for giving me this chance and my sponsors Burgfonds and Muermans for making it possible. This morning my dream came true and I had a big smile on my face as I drove out of the pit lane - it was an amazing feeling. I got to grips with the car quite quickly and I think I surprised a few people."

"Between the sessions the team amended my programme so I could do more work helping them with race preparation. It worked out well and we found some good data. A problem relating to the engine at the end of the day cut my track time short slightly but that was a minor dip in an otherwise great day."

James Robinson, Head of race and test engineering:

"It was an exciting day running for the first time at a new track and it's particularly interesting here because it is the latest layout in the grand scheme of circuit design. We had a couple of technical problems: a hydraulics leak with Timo's car which cut his running short as we had to change his power steering unit during the session, and Robert's day was cut short by an engine-related problem."

"Nick had a good run and overall the day was fairly encouraging, with a lot of good data to work on tonight if we are to reduce the understeer and reduce the tyre graining."

Timo Glock
Chassis: EJ14/02
Practice session 1: 17th, 1:37.587, 15 laps
Practice session 2: 22nd, 1:37.728, 15 laps

Nick Heidfeld
Chassis: EJ14/03
Practice session 1: 19th, 1:38.132, 14 laps
Practice session 2: 18th, 1:36.630, 19 laps

Robert Doornbos
Chassis: EJ14/01
Practice session 1: 23rd, 1:39.244, 23 laps
Practice session 2: 24th, 1:39.051, 15 laps

-jordan-