Mixed Fortunes for Jordan Drivers

The Jordan team endured a day of mixed fortunes on Saturday's qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, with Jarno Trulli setting a promising fifth fastest time while teammate Jean Alesi was only capable of posting the 16th quickest.

Trulli, who has been impressive in qualifying all season long with the Honda-powered EJ11, took full advantage of the Japanese unit's power to qualify in front of both the McLaren drivers. The Pescaran was delighted with his performance and was confident the new Bridgestone tyres would help him achieve a good result on Sunday.

"A great qualifying for me," said Trulli. "I'm really happy for me and the team; everyone did a great job. We did the best we could with the car and I'm really pleased. I'm looking forward to tomorrow because, with the help of this new tyre from Bridgestone for this weekend, we have a good chance of being competitive throughout the race."

Frenchman Alesi, on the other hand, was downbeat following a very tough session. The veteran driver, who has scored his only two pole positions at Monza, was hit by problems in the morning and was not happy with his car during qualifying.

"The worst qualifying I can imagine here," Alesi admitted. "We were not able to prepare the car correctly for qualifying because of a gearbox problem which cost me time in the morning. It meant I had no chance all through qualifying to find the correct balance.

"My main problem was the braking; I was not able to brake with confidence and I also had traffic problems at one stage, which didn't help."