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Barcelona day 4: Jordan completes test

Giancarlo Fisichella completed what he considered to be his first "proper run" in the 2003-spec Jordan-Ford EJ13 on the final day of the Barcelona test today (Friday). Jordan was the only team still in attendance and despite setting a 1m19.077s lap time, some four seconds from Michael Schumacher's record breaking pace of yesterday, the Italian was enthused by the potential of the new car

Jordan has been beset with new car glitches for the first three days of the test, twice having to stop running for parts to be corrected back in England so that the car could run safely. Yesterday Fisichella suffered a wing failure and lost a whole day's running on Tuesday when parts were held up in Spanish luggage control.

"After several installation laps I managed to do some proper running," said Fisichella. "It was very good because, checking the data, we were able to set 1m19.0s lap times immediately without pushing or changing set-ups.

"It was a lot of fun and very encouraging. The car is much more stable than last year's in all areas. It is still very understeery at the moment but we can control that when we start working on set-ups. I'm especially pleased with the engine, it has good power and is very reliable."

Fisichella was clearly pleased to be back in the groove and admitted to missing F1 over the winter break. "It has been a very tough winter," he said. "Three months of not driving is very difficult. Of course it is nice to be with my family but after three months rest I'm ready to work hard. I want to drive so much, which is good because at the moment I am the only driver!

"This car is a good one. I know we don't have much money, but I think what we have has been spent on the correct things. We still have a tough season ahead of us but at least we have a nice package we can develop."

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