By Phil Giles
June 28 2003

Giancarlo prophesised yesterday that today's qualifying session was not going to be one of the best for Jordan and true to form, Fisi lines up 13th with Ralph just behind him in 14th.

High praise was given to Firman by the ITV F1 crew, saying that this was probably his best qualifying hour so far, however, the picture from the garage was less than perfect for at least one of the Jordan team members.

“Thirteenth is nothing special but we were able to improve the balance compared to this morning so it’s better than it could have been." said Giancarlo.  "As I said yesterday, I don’t think we are competitive enough. It’s going to be difficult to score points in this race.” Perhaps the first signs that the Italian's move to a new team is starting to gather pace.

Ralph was a little bit more optimistic in respect to his chances tomorrow but rues the time lost at another new circuit for the rookie.  During early morning practice, the Ford Cosworth engine failed on him.  “It was disappointing that I lost a lot of track time in practice this morning as I think it may have cost me in qualifying.  We haven’t had any other problems and it’s worked out really well all weekend apart from that.  I’m quite happy with how qualifying went although I did made a small mistake on the lap.  You can never get it absolutely perfect but you can always aim to get it better and I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow.  It will be interesting to see how we end up.”

Gary Anderson felt that the result of today's session showed how well Ralph has come on through the year.  To have Ralph line up alongside Giancarlo shows how far he has come in the first half of the year.  “Qualifying didn’t turn out too bad.  As always it’s hard to know how we compare to the rest, with different strategies, so we’re just doing what we think is right for us." He said.  "Having two cars side by side on the grid is reasonable, as it just shows that is the pace of the car.  Ralph’s come on well since the beginning of the year, to be up there almost matching Giancarlo.  He’s less than three tenths of a second off and I think it’s a pretty creditable position.  We are hoping for a nice safe first corner, a good race and some points if we are lucky.”