2001 San Marino GP

After three fly away races, the teams look forward to returning to Europe and Imola for the San Marino Grand Prix. This is a welcome relief as teams are able to use their own trucks and motorhomes, rather than working out of freight cases and make-shift offices. Imola isn't actually in San Marino, but just over the border in Italy about 25 miles south-east of Bologna. Imola is the only circuit, other than Brazil, to run in an anti-clockwise direction. Opened in 1952, the then fast track underwent revisions following the race in May 1994 when Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger tragically died. The fast corners have been slowed by chicanes, making this circuit heavy on braking with good acceleration power needed out from the many second gear corners. Imola is therefore one of the higher downforce circuits, with the track gradients making it a race for the fittest.

"We've scored points in each of the first three races", commented Eddie Jordan, Chief Executive, "and it's the hard work and commitment of the entire team at Jordan and Honda that has made this possible. We've worked hard with Honda over the last few weeks to resolve some of the early season hitches and feel confident that Jordan will continue to be a strong challenger to the top teams."

This season sees thirteen new faces in the core Race Team with nine of these contributing to the twenty six man pit stop crew. The pressures faced in the first three races reaffirms that teamwork is a key factor in the team's success and the cornerstone of the strong camaraderie among the entire workforce. The four new recruits include two Race Engineers, Frentzen's Data Engineer and one of the T-car Mechanics. Six personnel have moved to the Race Team from the Test Team, joined by three further staff who were previously factory based.

A trouble-free, routine day for Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda, Jarno Trulli setting ninth fastest time, with Heinz-Harald Frentzen 13th. The Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello were fastest on their home track at Imola.

"A good day; trouble-free," said Trulli. "We worked all day with the race in mind; fuel, tyres and so on. Everything was working well but we don't know how quick we are compared to the other teams because we don't know the fuel loads they were running. I'm happy with the balance of the car even if the track conditions changed. We had a wet-set up initially but when the track dried very quickly, I couldn't change the set-up as much as I wanted, which meant I was struggling a little bit. But we already know which direction we have to take tomorrow."

Overnight rain and a wet track upset plans for Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda this morning during final preparations for qualifying this afternoon.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen set fifth fastest time in the final minutes but an attempt by Jarno Trulli to run on dry weather tyres at the end of practice did not pay off and he had to be satisfied with 16th fastest time.

One of the most dramatic qualifying sessions for some time saw Jarno Trulli set fifth fastest time for Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda while Heinz-Harald Frentzen slipped to ninth place with an unexpected handling problem.

David Coulthard took pole position for McLaren as the track got faster all the way through the 60-minute qualifying session.

An improvement in the weather contributed to a trouble-free warm-up for Benson and Hedges Jordan Honda. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jarno Trulli were seventh and tenth fastest at the end of a 30-minute session run in sunny but cool conditions.