08/07/2005
NEWS STORY
Jordan Grand Prix had a generally productive initial day of preparations for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, despite a change of engine for Tiago Monteiro after he experienced some problems in the first session, meaning he will have to start the race from the back of the grid on Sunday. Narain Karthikeyan completed quite a significant number of laps without encountering any major technical hitches while Robert Doornbos added more mileage to the EJ15B car, as was the case at the French Grand Prix and set the 20th fastest lap. The team particularly emphasised on chassis balance, car set-up and tyre evaluation and will now examine the data gathered during both sessions in order to make further improvements on the car for the rest of the weekend.
Narain Karthikeyan: I had a useful day comparing different types of Bridgestone tyres. Now, we are going to analyse the information collected during the two sessions and make the right choice for the weekend. The grip of the circuit was pretty poor and green at the beginning but then it improved. Besides, I am generally satisfied with the balance of the car, so now we will concentrate on the race set-up.
Tiago Monteiro: It was quite a difficult Friday for me. We had a little problem on the engine in the first session and had to change it. Therefore I am going to start last on the grid on Sunday and consequently, we have to adapt our strategy. Car-wise, we have improved a lot from this morning and also because the track got better and better. I think we have a good set-up for the car and we are not too far from the teams in front of us and this is a big improvement since the last time we tested in Silverstone.
Robert Doornbos: I had fun as it is always nice to drive on this very fast circuit, especially in the first part. Today went quite well even though I had some technical problem with the new EJ15B at the beginning of the second session, which cost me a little bit of time, and this is not good for me as I only have two hours on Friday. But in the end, we have found a good car balance and I was able to get a clear lap and pushed.
Adrian Burgess: It was a busy day for all of us here at our home race. Tiago had an engine change, which will obviously put him back after tomorrow's qualifying. However, he recovered fairly well and did a good job in the second session. Narain ran through all his Bridgestone tyre programmes in order to help us with our strategy. Robert experienced some technical problems with the new EJ15B car but he managed to get the tyre comparison we needed. We are fairly happy with the position we are in for tomorrow's qualifying.
Russian Driver, Roman Rusinov, who is part of the Midland drivers' development programme, joined the Jordan Grand Prix team for the weekend and will be visiting the Factory and the Pit Garage.