German GP Friday Jordan notes

Damon in third place on the first day in Germany.

The Benson and Hedges Jordan team had good reason to feel very encouraged by today's free practice session when Damon Hill finished the day in third place. The English driver was thrilled to see his name in the top three and has high hopes for tomorrow's qualifying when the cars will run a new E spec Honda engine. Ralf Schumacher struggled a little with the car and was not able to find his ideal set up, but reported that he was confident the performance would improve tomorrow. He finished in 10th place.

DAMON HILL CHASSIS 03 Best time 1.44.294 Best position 3rd "This is a great result and the most encouraging Friday performance all season. It is great to see my name in the top three again! There seems to be something inherently good about the Jordan car at Hockenheim, as it ran very well here last year. I used new tyres on the last lap, but even without that we were running well. Goodyear have come here with a good tyre for us, and that combined with the improvements on the car and the improvements made to the engine by Honda have made us very competitive. We will run a new engine tomorrow (E spec engine) for qualifying and I am looking forward to that. We are knocking on the door of being a regular top six runner again which is key. We just have to make sure this trend continues. I have reason to believe this could be our strongest qualifying of the year."

RALF SCHUMACHER CHASSIS 04 Best time 1.45.511 Best position 10th "I was not able to find the right balance today and found the car a little nervous. But Damon has managed to get a good performance out of the car, so I think once I have sat down and gone through the data, things should be better for tomorrow."