29/08/2004
NEWS STORY
A characteristically excitement-filled and action-packed Belgian Grand Prix was eventful for Jordan Ford but unfortunately not for the right reasons. Giorgio Pantano made a good start which moved him up the field by several places but he could not avoid Bruni's Minardi as it careered sideways across the track after an incident at the infamous Eau Rouge and the resulting accident brought Pantano's race to a very premature end. Nick Heidfeld finished an arduous race in 11th position after struggling with pace and five visits to the pits, including two unscheduled stops with mechanical problems.
Nick Heidfeld: My start was good but then there were a lot of things going on at the first corner and I was pushed to the outside, lost my front wing, and came in to change that and check the rest of the car. I had lost part of the barge boards on the right side but I guess there was no time to change them. After that I felt the balance of the car was very poor, with huge understeer and a lot of ‘bottoming'. That's why I nearly went off once at Eau Rouge. We tried to compensate for the understeer with some wing changes, but I think the damage to the aero parts was just too much. The team called me in the lap after my first stop for another tyre and fuel stop, I'm not really sure why yet. On top of that I got more problems with the engine cutting out. So although I was scheduled to drive to the end I pitted again and switched off the engine for a very long stop while the team changed a part to fix the engine cut-outs and that worked out. Although at that stage there were only 4 or 5 more laps to go.
Giorgio Pantano: I came out of the start and first corner quite well, but something was happening with a few other cars. As I arrived at the top of Eau Rouge, I saw Sato's car going off so I slowed down but then a Minardi appeared from the back and spun in front of me - there was nowhere for me to go. It was a bit scary! It's disappointing because I had a good start and with the number of people that retired I had the chance of doing a really good race today.
James Robinson: Once again Spa gave us a great race; it's unfortunate that we were not in the frame. The accidents and subsequent damage we suffered with both cars meant we were spectators to the day.