Jordan brings one car home.
All ok
By Phil Giles
March 7 2004
Rookie driver Giorgio Pantano brought his EJ14 home in 14th position after a quiet race in the Australian Grand Prix. Team mate Nick Heidfeld suffered a clutch problem which saw his retirement from the Grand Prix.
| Nick's clutch problem manifested
itself at a pitstop when the German knocked over two of the Jordan
mechanics. Luckily, nobody was injured in the incident but a few laps
later, the gearbox failed forcing him out of the race on lap 46. Giorgio's race was a solid performance from the rookie driver. The EJ14 ended the Grand Prix just two laps down on the race winner Michael Schumacher. |
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Nick Heidfeld DNF "What happened in the pit stop has never happened to me before and I was pretty afraid for the mechanics. Luckily they are fine and that is the most important thing. It’s not a problem we have had before but we noticed something wrong with the clutch and at the pit stop it didn’t work at all so the car just kept pushing whilst stuck in first gear. It was the same problem that forced me to retire. In terms of our performance, I actually expected we would be better in race conditions, however I struggled with tyre graining throughout most of the race. We definitely have a good basis to improve
the package and find that performance level for the next couple of races." |
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Giorgio Pantano 14th “I enjoyed my first Grand Prix and am very glad that we made it to the end. We kept ourselves relatively close to the field and finished just two laps down from Michael Schumacher which I think isn’t too bad for our first race. I’m learning about the car very quickly and
it will all keep coming together. Finishing the race was the target
for this, my first Grand Prix, and I did it.” |
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James Robinson Head of Race and Engineering “It’s good to get one car home at the first race of the season and it’s been good for Giorgio to get some miles under his belt - that’s the longest distance he has ever done in the EJ14. There were some very good pit stops by the boys and it was great to beat Fisichella out on Heidfeld’s second stop. More admirable was the good recovery from the problem in Nick’s last pit stop, staying solidly at their posts and doing the job. We’ve got plenty of homework to do now and we
are eager to see how we can get the most out of the next race.” |
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Eddie Jordan Chief Executive “It was great for Giorgio to finish his first Grand Prix and it was in tough circumstances so well done to him. Nick was pushing on but he had a problem that caused an incident in his last pit stop and I’m glad to see that the guys who got run over are safe and in good shape. As we’ve seen, this year is not going to be easy and I expect a tough season but I think that for the team and our “fightback”, this is a good start and promising for the future.” |
