Jordan Complete Troubled First Day at Barcelona

The Jordan team said they were impressed by the new Ford-powered EJ13 following the first real test of the new machine at the Barcelona circuit today.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, so far the only driver confirmed at the Silverstone-based outfit, took to the Spanish track for the first of five days of work at the Spanish circuit. Fisichella's progress was hampered in the morning by what the team said was a minor fuel leak causing an engine bay fire.

Despite the problem, the team were encouraged.

"The track was wet this morning and we lost most of the day repairing damage from the fire," said race engineering boss Gary Anderson. "Giancarlo completed about 15 laps although no timed laps in the dry. Some of these things shouldn't happen, but testing is like that and you just have to accept it.

"I'm impressed with what the car's like and it was good to get the testing programme proper off the ground so we can start addressing these little troubles."

The team spent some hours repairing the car and after more installation laps late in the afternoon, Fisichella was hit by a gearbox problem that cut short his day's work.

"We did a few installation laps this morning in the wet and just two fairly gentle timed laps," said Fisichella. "We had a problem quite early on which meant we couldn't run until late this afternoon and I only got a couple of laps before a problem with the gearbox stopped us again.

"It's difficult to get a proper impression of the car on a day like this but I feel there's quite a good response from the car and engine. Let's wait until later in the week to evaluate it properly."

The team will continue testing at Barcelona tomorrow, when they will be joined by BAR, Jaguar and World Champions Ferrari, with their star driver Michael Schumacher expected to get back to work for the first time since the end of the 2002 season.