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Located in the centre of France, Circuit Nevers in Magny-Cours was formerly a Club Racing facility before being upgraded to Formula One standards to host its first Grand Prix in 1991. The track is considered technical with its combination of low speed hairpins, medium speed corners, long straights and fast chicanes and offers a few good overtaking opportunities with its high speed and flowing nature. The smooth surface allows cars to run with a low ride height which creates additional downforce, although the downside to this surface is its harsh effect on the rear tyres. The first two corners at the end of the main straight are very fast, with the first left hander taken almost flat out, followed quickly by a long and fast right hander where a good exit speed is crucial as this dictates a car's speed along the Golf straight up to the Adelaide hairpin. With hot temperatures further playing a part in tyre and driver performance, the Circuit Nevers provides a challenging and usually exciting race. Nick Heidfeld and Giorgio Pantano finished the French Grand Prix 16th and 17th in a race which saw total reliability from ninety per cent of the grid. Jordan Ford executed its strategy with minor pit lane setbacks for both drivers; Pantano received a drive-through penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit and Heidfeld took the pit crew by surprise, coming in without warning a lap before his scheduled second stop.
Nick Heidfeld and Giorgio Pantano qualified in 17th and 18th for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix following a weekend of steady improvement with the car set-up. Heidfeld was content with his qualifying lap however Pantano rued a driving error that cost him a few tenths of a second in lap time. With the region’s unpredictable weather conditions and Magny-Cours a favourite circuit for the two Jordan drivers, the team is hopeful of an exciting race. Nick Heidfeld said, “We made good improvements with the car after yesterday’s difficulties in finding a proper balance due to the wet conditions. The car changed more than expected between qualifying sessions and although it was better, a few small adjustments we made didn’t pay off as well as I thought. Still, I think the lap itself was good.”
This weekend the Jordan cars’ “Message from Bahrain” is the emblem of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), an organisation which aims to raise awareness about and spark response to crises it sees in Africa: unpayable Debts, uncontrolled spread of AIDS, and unfair Trade rules which keep Africans poor. The organisation was founded in 2002 by Bono, the lead singer of U2, along with Bobby Shriver and activists from the Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt campaign.
Free practice at the French Grand Prix at Magny Cours was affected by intermittent heavy rain showers today with many cars failing to set a timed fast lap due to the conditions. Jordan Ford carried out some of its programme and used the wet weather to evaluate wet set-up and tyre configurations. All three Jordan drivers went out in the first ten minutes of the session before the rain started and set fast times in the dry and ended up in the timing charts' top six. |
