image
Final qualifying

Qualifying ran quite smoothly for Jordan Ford, with Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralph Firman’s lap times placing them 15th and 17th on the starting grid for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix.  The team adjusted the EJ13’s set-up to compensate for the oversteer and low grip levels experienced yesterday and this morning and the drivers are reasonably optimistic about the race.

SATURDAY PRACTICE 1
Ralph Firman 17th       1:25.044   15 laps
Giancarlo Fisichella 18th   1:25.114  15 laps

SATURDAY PRACTICE 2 
Giancarlo Fisichella 16th   1:23.944 16 laps
Ralph Firman  18th  1:23.981 16 laps

WARM-UP
Giancarlo Fisichella 13th   1:23.792 4 laps
Ralph Firman  15th  1:24.692 6 laps

QUALIFYING

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA 15th 1:23.385
CHASSIS NUMBER EJ13-04
“I did a good lap with no mistakes.  The grid position could have been worse I suppose so although I would like to be further up the grid, I’m hopeful that we might be able to do something in the race tomorrow.  You never know what’s going to happen.”

RALPH FIRMAN 17th 1:24.385
CHASSIS NUMBER EJ13-03
“It was a productive morning, although the car had a little bit of oversteer.  We made some changes before warm-up and ended up with massive understeer which we didn’t cure before qualifying.  I didn’t really want to change the car too much because I want to keep a good race car, but that compromised our qualifying performance.  I’m quite disappointed with my lap time but have a good car for tomorrow so let’s see how we fare in the race.”

GARY ANDERSON
DIRECTOR OF RACE AND TEST ENGINEERING
“That wasn’t too bad compared to our expectations. For what we’re doing, Giancarlo did a reasonable job and Ralph was fighting with a bit of understeer - round here that loses lap time.  I think we’ll find a bit of activity in the pit road tomorrow, perhaps more than you would normally expect at Silverstone.  It’s a hard race and a bit of a lottery to be honest but the tyres look consistent so we’ll have to see what unfolds for us.”

T-car chassis EJ13-02 (set up for Giancarlo Fisichella)


19 Jul 2003 15:43