By Phil Giles
May 8 2004

Jordan showed today that the aerodynamic changes to the car and the recent kilometres of testing are starting to pay off. Nick's EJ14 is moving up the grid and he qualified 15th in a session which for the first time this year saw no-one fail to qualify.

Giorgio would have been with Nick on the grid but had a slight trip across the grass to finish in 19th out of the 20 qualifiers.  Giorgio to be fair has little experience of the Circuit de Catalunya but won't forget turn six in a hurry.

"I’m happy to have a Jaguar and a Sauber behind me and I’m also happy with how the whole weekend has gone so far as we are now closer to the other cars’ lap times." said Nick.  "However, I have to say I am not happy with this particular lap. Very unusually, for some reason I struggled with this individual run – I found the balance difficult and there was less grip. It was difficult to get around without throwing the car away so I’m pleased with my time, considering that."

"This morning it was coming together quite well and we found quite a good car balance." commented Giorgio.  "We are looking at where we are losing time from the others and were hoping to make an improvement in qualifying. I was quite good on the first sector, down maybe two tenths, but then as I arrived at corner six I made a mistake and lost my best lap time. It was my mistake and that’s all there is to say."

James Robinson commented: "It is good to out-qualify Sauber and Jaguar for the first time as this reinforces the improvements we have made in recent weeks. It was a demanding session for us as Nick’s car developed a gearbox problem before qualifying which meant changing the gearbox within a very tight time frame to get the car out in first qualifying. During the session, the drivers found that strong winds tended to change the balance of the car. Unfortunately Giorgio made a mistake on his lap and we decided it was worth him finishing it as it still looked as though he could get ahead of the Minardis. He managed to stay ahead of one but the time lost was of too much detriment to be able to get ahead of both. On the positive side this weekend, so far we have not lost any track time to technical problems and it is encouraging to see the gap between us and the cars ahead starting to narrow. Let’s see what the race brings tomorrow."

No doubt us Jordan Fans are hoping for the first points of the season and wish the team all the best for the race.