01/07/2005
NEWS STORY
Jordan Grand Prix drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Robert Doornbos began the weekend with a smooth-running Free Practice day today with no mechanical problem or damage to their cars at the circuit de Magny-Cours. Unfortunately for Tiago Monteiro, he damaged his rear suspension after hitting a kerb in the last chicane and lost some valuable track time in the first session. However, the team did an excellent job in fixing the car for the afternoon and Monteiro managed to complete 18 laps with a fastest a time of 1.19.186. Doornbos spent the two sessions testing the new EJ15B, adding more mileage to the car and set an encouraging time of 1.17.574 which was the quickest of the three cars. All the drivers had the advantage of driving on a familiar track and completed their various programmes such as car set-up and Bridgestone tyre evaluation.
Narain Karthikeyan: "I had a normal opening day today, working especially on the car set-up and Bridgestone tyre comparison. Robert Doornbos was driving the new EJ15B, which was very useful for the team and the car has obviously more potential. Of course, there are some little teething problems but generally it looked better. We are quite please with the work we have done today and we will now see how it goes tomorrow."
Tiago Monteiro: "We had a busy day and not the best for me today. I went off on a kerb this morning and damaged the rear suspension and lost a set of tyres, which conditioned my afternoon programme. We tried different set-ups to improve the balance of the car and I hope tomorrow will be more a normal day."
Robert Doornbos: "I had a lot of fun today driving the new car. Everybody was very keen and focused on the programme. There is a definite improvement over the old car but we still need to do some work on the set-up. We made big step forward in this area in the afternoon."
Adrian Burgess: "We did not have a bad start but it was not a perfect start either. Narain did a solid job. We learnt some useful information from him in order to go in the right direction for the rest of the weekend. Tiago had a brief spin this morning, which damaged the car but then we were able to catch up in the afternoon. Robert did a good job as normal and put another 200 kms on the new car, which allowed us to gain very valuable information and solve some of the issues we had. It was a very productive day for the EJ15B."