By Phil Giles
September 26 2004

Jordan had a good solid day at the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, both of the EJ14's came home, with Nick Heidfeld in 13th place and Timo Glock, two places further back in 15th.

Eddie put a positive spin on the weekend as he praised the circuit and it's facilities.  “Every single person involved in putting on the Grand Prix in Shanghai should congratulate themselves." he said.  "It’s one of the slickest and most professional efforts you will find and the welcome and happiness of the people here is a compliment to this fabulous new event on the calendar. I can’t wait to return.”

Nick Heidfeld completed the race in 13th place.  “I’m quite happy with the race and it was good fun, especially at the start where I made up some places." he said.  "After that I was pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to keep up with the cars in front. Unfortunately after the first pit stop, with the second set of tyres, it got a bit worse because I experienced a lot of graining on the front tyres which took a long time to disappear and that’s why I lost some lap time. In the end I just worked really hard to keep Panis behind me and I’m happy because I think it’s a good achievement for us.”

Timo ended only his second grand prix in 15th position. “My race was a bit difficult. I had a bad start compared to Nick, with more wheel spin than normal. The first five laps I experienced graining and understeer and watched Nick speed away ahead of me. After that when the tyres came back, the lap times were pretty good and I could get closer to Nick again. I pushed a little bit too hard at the end of the first stint and had a spin that kind of ended my race because after it I couldn’t close the gap to Nick. That was bad but on the positive side, the lap times were good and consistent. After the second stop I lost some grip and the car was oversteering, but having said that I was able to do my fastest lap on the last lap. Overall I am satisfied with myself because the car was nervous and I didn’t find a good rhythm. It’s good to have done another race - it was my aim to finish and I did it.”

James Robinson commented: “Given yesterday’s positive qualifying from Nick, starting where we did today, he had a good hard race and beat the Toyota of Panis on the track, excellent. He also had a good fight with Michael Schumacher and chased Villeneuve for a good third of the race, finishing just 17 seconds behind Michael on the line. Timo had a hard race, learning the car and where the limits are. Unfortunately he got on the wrong side of the blue flags which pushed him further down the charts than his performance should have indicated. I am sure he will go away from here more the wiser.”