Italian GP: Jordan Friday practice notes

Jordan consolidated work from last week's Monza test in today's free practice, with the drivers reporting a much-improved car balance at the Italian circuit. At the start of the second session Nick Heidfeld's car stopped on the track due to an engine oil leak, costing the German and his engineer half of the day's track time.

Other than this solitary technical problem, the Jordan Ford EJ14s were reliable and the team is optimistic about the information collected in preparation for the race.

Timo Glock:

"I think it was a really good day. We made progress on finding a tyre for the race distance and also there has been a big improvement in car set-up compared to the test last week. We found some good things for the car and for the first time I would say that I am satisfied with the job I have done: the long runs for tyres were good and at the end my flying lap was not bad either."

"Any driver will always say perhaps I could have been one or two tenths faster but today I'm quite pleased. The team and especially Oliver (Knighton, Glock's engineer) have done a good job."

Giorgio Pantano:

"Today we worked on the car balance towards finding the best set-up for the race. We were evaluating the conditions and how the car behaved, particularly on long runs. Apart from some problems I experienced with the rear of the car, we are relatively happy."

Nick Heidfeld:

"The first session worked out quite well because, encouragingly, the car was balanced a lot better than it was at the test. Unfortunately before I could do a timed lap in the second session, I had a technical problem which stopped the car on track."

"That's a bit disappointing obviously but so far this season we have had a reliable engine and this can happen every once in a while. It's not nice though to lose a whole practice session because it meant there were a few things we were not able to test."

James Robinson, Head of race and test engineering:

"A mixed Friday for Jordan. It was very unfortunate to lose Nick's car on the circuit in the first laps of the second session and we are examining why that happened and if we can recover the situation. Meanwhile Timo showed good pace which was very encouraging, following on from a successful test last week. The tyres look to be working very well and the team has worked hard to improve the car based on the information from the test."

Timo Glock
Chassis: EJ14/01
Practice session 1: 19th, 1:23.333, 28 laps
Practice session 2: 16th, 1:22.332, 17 laps

Nick Heidfeld
Chassis: EJ14/03
Practice session 1: 22nd, 1:24.000, 11 laps
Practice session 2: no time, 1 lap

Giorgio Pantano
Chassis: EJ14/02
Practice session 1: 23rd, 1:24.412, 10 laps
Practice session 2: 21st, 1:23.818, 17 laps

-jordan-