Minnows take step forward

Jordan drivers Nick Heidfeld and rookie Giorgio Pantano were 14th and 15th in the first session today and Italian Pantano improved to 13th in session two, just over a second off the pace of pace-setter Rubens Barrichello.

German Heidfeld's second session was ended prematurely when his engine's safety shut-down system killed the power in his Jordan. But he is still happy with the progress his team is making.

"Today at least we have improved compared to our rivals and that is in part thanks to Bridgestone," he said. "Unfortunately I lost three quarters of the session due to a problem which caused me to stop on the track.

"It is a worse hindrance than usual both as a driver and in terms of setting the car up, because it is valuable time at a new track. Hopefully, we will be able to use data from [test driver] Timo [Glock] and Giorgio to set the car up for tomorrow."

Jordan's head of race and test engineering James Robinson said he is hoping Heidfeld will not have to change eninges as a result of the problem, as that would mean he would start 10 places lower on the grid than his qualifying position, effectively relegating him to the very back of the grid.

Pantano was more pleased with his day's work but warned against easing off and getting complacent. "We are beginning to see a little bit of difference," he declared. "We are a lot closer to the front in our lap times compared to the last two races, which is encouraging.

"For sure, we need still need to improve a lot because this is not the maximum we can do. But we have come to a new track and everybody has worked hard to find a good set-up. I think it's starting to come together and I'm happier."

Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner and Gianmaria Bruni ended up 20th and 22nd in the times but they too reckoned they were closer to the front of the field in terms of time than they have been so far this season.

Hungarian Baumgartner said: "To be in front of one or two other cars is definitely satisfying. We spent quite a bit of time altering the car during the two sessions, and the track was changing all the time. We improved steadily, though, and hopefully that will continue tomorrow."

Rookie Bruni was similarly upbeat and reckoned he could have gone quicker if it hadn't been for traffic. "We found a good chassis balance today," he explained. "Although I wasn't able to set my best possible time on soft tyres, I think we should be fine for tomorrow."

Team boss Paul Stoddart said: "All three drivers put in an excellent performance today. I'm particularly pleased with Zsolt's last run but feel for Gimmi and [test driver] Bas [Leinders] both of whom had their potentially quickest laps adversely affected by traffic and incidents."