An eventful day for Jordan Ford resulted in Nick Heidfeld and Giorgio Pantano qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix in 17th and 18th positions.  Pantano and his mechanics recovered well from a free practice accident this morning although the Italian did not get a perfect qualifying lap, sliding wide as he came out of the Ascari corner; while Heidfeld qualified using the spare car after encountering a gearbox problem during pre-qualifying.

NICK HEIDFELD (EJ14/01)  17th  1.22.301
“Obviously it was a disappointing day for me although it was clear already that I would be starting the race tomorrow ten places back because of the engine change yesterday.  I was not able to do a quick lap in pre-qualifying as I had a gearbox problem and we were not able to rectify it before qualifying so we chose to jump in the spare car.  In the circumstances, I was quite happy with the lap.”

GIORGIO PANTANO (EJ14/02)  18th  1.23.239
“I was expecting better from qualifying.  I lost two or three tenths of a second when I went off slightly at the exit of Ascari - I think I was pushing a bit too much. Apart from that mistake I think it was the maximum.”

JAMES ROBINSON
HEAD OF RACE AND TEST ENGINEERING
“Nick had a gear selection problem with his car in pre-qualifying which we were not able to fix before qualifying.  Having already incurred a ‘ten places back’ penalty for changing his engine yesterday, we chose to use the spare car given the high probability of rain tomorrow.  Giorgio’s car had to be repaired after his accident late in free practice so the boys worked hard and did well to get it ready in time for pre-qualifying.”