McLaren running light fuel load, says Jordan

The Irishman believes McLaren are so rattled by Ferrari's dominance they pumped fuel out of the car just to win public relations points, but in the process wasted valuable Friday practice time usually reserved for working on race set-up.

Coulthard and team mate Mika Hakkinen were first and fifth at the end of the first day's practice, but the McLaren duo's main rival Michael Schumacher has won the opening two races of the season from pole position and built up a 10 point lead at the head of the drivers' standings.

"They took the fuel out for sure," said Jordan, "but we will know tomorrow [in qualifying]. I have never known Ron [Dennis] to suffer this type of pressure before. Ferrari must be getting to him.

"David is not going to be one second quicker than everyone else tomorrow so we will see who has fuel in or not for qualifying. Ron is under a lot of pressure at the moment it was important he showed one of his cars at the front of the grid."

Schumacher's team mate Rubens Barrichello wound up in seventh place at the end of the first day's running. The Brazilian does not believe DC's time is genuine either - and that the proof will come in qualifying.

"I agree with Eddie. David is not normally 1.5s faster than Mika. If both the cars did the same time then perhaps we would be worried," he said.

Coulthard was fastest by over a second from Jordan's own driver Jarno Trulli with Schumacher another 0.373s behind in third spot.

In an effort to speed up car development McLaren made a last minute decision on Wednesday to let its aerodynamic guru Adrian Newey stay in England to work on improvements to the MP4-16, rather than attend this weekend's race.