By Vicki
September 16 2002

It's been a long time coming, and is the result of a lot of months of sweat, blood and tears from the dedicated staff in Milton Keynes, but now that hard work has reaped it's rewards and Jaguar Racing can now look on Eddie Irvine's 3rd place at Monza with a sense of pride and achivement. After a very strong performance all weekend in Monza, Eddie Irvine today rewarded Jaguar Racing with an impressive podium finish at the Italian Grand Prix. Eddie Irvine and Pedro de la Rosa started the race in 5th and 8th places respectively but Pedro’s race was short-lived after a coming together with Sauber’s Felipe Massa. Eddie, however, drove a very strong and intelligent race and managed to achieve his first podium of the season and Jaguar Racing’s second since the Monaco Grand Prix last year. As was the case in Monaco last year, the Jaguar R3 crossed the finishing line just behind the two Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello. In the process, Jaguar Racing now leaps ahead of British American Racing-Honda and Jordan-Honda to claim sixth place in the overall championship standings. "It’s great to back on the podium again after so long and I’m very happy indeed with the reward generated for the team. The Jaguar R3 has been a strong contender here all weekend and without doubt, the team has done an excellent job in getting us here. The longer you’re away, the sweeter it is and this is simply fantastic for everyone at Jaguar. It was a tough race and right from the very beginning, my aim was to aim for the podium. The pace of the car was very good throughout the race and I suffered no problems at all. Once I stretched my lead into third place, I backed off in an effort to preserve the car and in particular, the brakes. About fifteen laps from the end, however, the team told me to begin pushing hard again because of the big chunks of time that Trulli’s Renault was taking out of me. I upped the pace and just kept pushing and pushing towards the end. A podium place is simply fantastic and after Monaco, there is no better place to get it. The relief on everyone’s face is clear to see and more than anything, I owe this result to the workforce at Milton Keynes who have seen very little good news this season. Under Niki and Guenther’s leadership, the team has done an incredible job in transforming the Jaguar R3 into what is now a competitive machine. Apart from the tub I sit in, everything on this car has been re-designed and changed since the beginning of the season – everything from the suspension, floor, engine and of course, the aerodynamics. Formula One needs Jaguar and Jaguar needs Formula One. Today went quite some way towards proving that and let’s now see what we can generate from the last two races."