Jordan minds the gap
Qualifying went relatively smoothly for the Jordan Grand Prix team, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman's lap times securing 15th and 17th on the grid for tomorrow's British Grand Prix. Despite the relatively lowly starting slots, the team closed the gap on the front-runners in comparison to their last appearance. Fisichella finished 2.3s off today's pole time, as compared with 3.5s in France.
"That wasn't too bad compared to our expectations," said technical director Gary Anderson. "For what we're doing, Giancarlo did a reasonable job although Ralph was fighting with a bit of understeer."
"I did a good lap with no mistakes," said Fisi. "The grid position could have been worse I suppose so although I would like to be further up the grid, I'm hopeful that we might be able to do something in the race tomorrow. You never know what's going to happen."
The team adjusted the EJ13 set-ups to compensate for the oversteer and low grip levels experienced yesterday and this morning and the drivers were more optimistic about their chances in the race.
"It was a productive morning, although the car had a little bit of oversteer," said Firman. "We made some changes before warm-up and ended up with massive understeer which we didn't cure before qualifying.
"I didn't really want to change the car too much because I want to keep a good race car, but that compromised our qualifying performance. I'm quite disappointed with my lap time but have a good car for tomorrow so let's see how we fare in the race."
Now the cars are locked away in Parc Ferme, but there will be time enough to make some final adjustments before the start tomorrow. "I think we'll find a bit of activity in the pit road tomorrow," said Anderson, "perhaps more than you would normally expect at Silverstone.
"It's a hard race and a bit of a lottery to be honest but the tyres look consistent so we'll have to see what unfolds for us."
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