US GP: Jordan race notes

Improved performance throughout the weekend and promising race starts from both drivers ended in disappointment for Jordan Ford today as both drivers retired from the race. Pantano made an excellent start and had made up several positions when he was caught in a first corner collision not of his making which also forced the retirement of three other cars.

Heidfeld managed to avoid the day's numerous track accidents and was armed for a points finish, enjoying increasingly improving car and tyre balance, when his engine stopped on lap 45. The team is currently investigating the reason that this happened.

Giorgio Pantano:

"What can I say? I got a really good start but then at the first corner I was involved with the incident with Klien and Da Matta and I had to stop because the front left suspension was totally broken. When you see how few cars finished, it really was possible for us to score a few points today. That's it. Bad luck!"

Nick Heidfeld:

"I'm not 100% sure but I think my problem was the engine. It may have been something else that caused the engine to stop so I will have to check with the engineers later. The race was going better than expected: I was lucky enough not to be involved with the crash at the beginning and then when I was a lot of laps into the race, the tyres and car improved. I think we had a good chance for results today so it's disappointing not to finish but we have demonstrated once again that we are capable of a strong points-scoring performance so I'm optimistic for the next races."

James Robinson, Head of race and test engineering:

"It was a disappointing race for us. Giorgio made an excellent start and was way up there towards the front when he got caught out in somebody else's accident. Nick was running well, benefiting from a good strategy which involved pitting under the safety car but unfortunately we had an engine problem at the end which meant he didn't finish. It's a shame as we were looking quite strong."

GIORGIO PANTANO
Chassis: EJ14/02
DNF (accident, lap 1)

NICK HEIDFELD
Chassis: EJ14/03
DNF (engine, lap 45)

-jordan-