25/07/2004
NEWS STORY
A number of readers have contacted pitpass, asking how come Timo Glock was so quick on Friday.
In the second free practice session, the Jordan EJ14, was fifth quickest, beaten only by Sato, Button, Montoya and Pizzonia, and ahead of Michael Schumacher. The German youngster's speed was clocked at 203.996 mph (328.3 kph)
Wondering where this speed had suddenly 'appeared' from, we contacted Jordan.
"The reason is Timo has to use up ex race engines," explained James Robinson, the Irish outfit's head of race and test engineering, "two engines in fact for this Friday, with an engine change at lunch time.
"Each new engine has a number of laps each weekend that can be run at a higher power level. Neither race driver use these setting on a Friday with their new engines as these setting are saved for qualy and the race, however Timo from time to time may have a few laps at these higher power settings remaining on the old engines, as the race drivers may not have used them all at the previous race or races due to retirement etc.
"It therefore effectively means for a limited time on a Friday Timo may have more horsepower than our two race drivers and probably more horse power than a number of other cars in the pitlane who are also running conservative engine settings on Friday," James revealed. "Hence qualifying engine settings mean higher top speeds."
So now you know.