Jordan's eventful qualifying

18th
By Phil Giles
September 14 2002

Jordan drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Takuma Sato have qualified for the Italian Grand prix at Monza in 12th and 18th places respectively. Takuma Sato was luck to walk away form a 200kph incident when Kimi Rakkonnen managed to push Taku's EJ12 off the track on the approach to the second chicane.

Takuma was half way round on a flying lap, Rakkonnen was on an out lap when he failed to see Taku's bright yellow car in his mirrors. Takuma had nowhere else to go and collided with the Mclaren's right rear wheel, sending both cars spinning into the gravel trap. With two minutes left in the session was stopped and the cars cleared away. The EJ12 looking a lot worse than the Mclaren.

Gary Anderson was livid at the collision. "Takuma did not get a good lap and then on his last run there was the incident with Raikkonen, who was on an out lap, which is absolutely absurd. I think we should give him some of our wing mirrors because he obviously needs them!" He said.

At the end of qualifying, Taku approached McLaren boss Ron Dennis. "I went there because it was not a good situation for both of us, so I wanted to create a better situation. We also went to see the Stewards, Raikkonen and myself. They are not going to do anything at the moment, maybe later. I had a discussion with Ron. I don't know what is going to happen now."

Eddie Jordan said: "I went to see Ron because I think it is not a matter of team principles. So when I saw Taku going to see Ron I thought I better go and see him. There is a certain code of conduct and code of practice and there was a slight lapse this time. It was a big accident and as to what Ron said to Taku I wouldn't like to make a comment on it. These things do happen, and it was fortunate that neither driver got hurt. The fact is he (Raikkonen) was on an out lap and Taku was on a flying lap. That's it."

Obviously unhappy at today's event, Anderson added: "Giancarlo's result is about as good as we can expect at the moment, can't say I'm content, because we're not in the top ten, but I don't think we could have done much to improve today. The race should be better because the tyres are very consistent and we've got a reasonable place to work from."

Giancarlo commented on a difficult session for him. "That was tough, as I expected. Our strategy was to do two timed laps and we were a bit unlucky because I'm sure my best run was the second flying lap on the outing when the session was red flagged, there was a possibility to be tenth but it wasn't easy and we are still struggling with grip. Tomorrow we should be better for the race but we need to find something more because the competition is so quick."

Sato said "That was the most difficult qualifying session of my career. There was a combination of factors; the car was not perfect and also I made a couple of mistakes and couldn't complete a whole flying lap. The final outing was my last chance and it was going to be three consecutive timed laps.

On the third one, Kimi was on his way out from the pit and he took a wider line before turn 2. I was on the inside, following him in the slipstream, but at the braking point I moved out. He had plenty of time to look in the mirror and see me but obviously he didn't realise I was there. We tangled at high speed but luckily I managed to slow down a lot before I touched the tyre barrier. A big shame. I hope the race is exciting."

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