Jordan Encouraged by Race Pace

German Nick Heidfeld was satisfied with the race pace of his Jordan car, despite failing to finish today's Malaysian Grand Prix.

Heidfeld, who also failed to finish in Australia two weeks earlier, endured a troubled Grand Prix at Sepang and eventually had to retire due to a problem with his gearbox.

"Realistically the race was over for me after my first pitstop because no fuel went into the car and I had to come in to stop again, very slowly as well so as not to run out of fuel on the circuit," said Heidfeld. "I was trying to move up the field when the gears went.

"Although it's disappointing not to finish because of technical problems, on the positive side I made a really good start and my speed wasn't bad at the beginning. I kept a few cars behind me - Toyota, Jaguar, Sauber - our pace was quite good."

Heidfeld's teammate Giorgio Pantano also had a difficult day, spinning at the start of the race and then going on to finish more than two laps down in 13th position.

"I have to say it was a hard weekend for us, the difficulties started in qualifying when we had a problem with car," said Pantano. "In the end we were able to fix it for the race so I used my original car although it meant starting from the pitlane.

"I think I drove quite a consistent race, but it was just a little bit hard at the end because my drinks bottle didn't work throughout the race and it was quite exhausting by the finish."