Frentzen Fired from Jordan; Zonta to Race in Germany

Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been sacked by the Jordan Formula One team just four days before his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim.

"The contract between Jordan and Heinz-Harald Frentzen has been cancelled with immediate effect," a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday. No reasons were given for his dismissal but Frentzen has scored only six points this season. He has been outqualified by teammate Jarno Trulli nine times in 10 races.

Jordan said there had been an "exchange of views" at the British Grand Prix 10 days ago when the 34-year-old German finished seventh.

"It has been a disappointing season for both of us. We had an exchange of views after the British Grand Prix and this is the result," team chief Eddie Jordan was quoted as saying. Jordan's third driver Ricardo Zonta will replace Frentzen for Sunday's German Grand Prix.

It is very unusual for a driver with points under his belt to be sacked mid-season. Frentzen finished third in the title race in 1999 in his first season with Jordan but slipped to ninth, with 11 points, last year when Jordan suffered severe reliability problems.

That situation has not got much better in 2001. Jordan's new 'launch control' software failed Frentzen in Barcelona and Austria, and the team decided to de-activate it for Monaco. He has not scored a point since April and in the last two races he has finished lower down the field than he started.

The German did not finish the previous four Grands Prix and missed out altogether in Canada when he felt too unwell to compete after two heavy crashes. Frentzen, who had been linked by paddock speculation to Toyota ahead of the Japanese team's debut in 2002, renewed his contract with Jordan last month.

In a statement released before the European Grand Prix, Jordan said then: "Frentzen's two-year contract with Jordan, signed in July 2000, stands secure."

The Moenchengladbach driver joined Jordan from Williams in a direct switch with Ralf Schumacher, whose relationship with the team had cooled. Frentzen had finished Championship runner-up to Williams teammate Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 but saw his form fall off in 1998 after Williams lost their Renault engines.