By Phil Giles
May 20 2004

Jordan's first practice session of the 2004 Monaco Grand Prix was encouraging for the team and in particular Giorgio Pantano who despite an injured knee managed to post times faster than both Nick Heidfeld and Timo Glock.

The team had been putting the EJ14 through it's paces at the Ecclestone owned Paul Ricard circuit last week.  The circuit is configurable and the "Monaco" configuration was one which the team ran.

“I’m quite happy today." said Giorgio. "We did quite good work but there is more to gain with the car and also from me. By Saturday I am sure we can improve the car, the lap time, and also my performance. We will try, as always, to do our maximum and continue to close the gap to the front teams. It would be good if we can find a way to score some points in this race.”

Nick's day was a bit different.  “I suffered a bit with brakes throughout the day but otherwise we had no technical problems." he said afterwards.  "We are not quite there yet with the balance of the car, it’s not bad here but I’m sure we can improve it. My lap times reflect my slightly different programme to the other two drivers and I was reasonably satisfied with how today went.”

“Free practice was not too bad and it’s good that I concentrated on keeping the car on the track." said Timo.  "It was a little bit difficult as the circuit is new to me and it’s a special track. After the first 10 or 15 laps I found a good rhythm for doing a long run but after that I was a little bit late on the brakes coming into the first corner and drove into the escape road. I did what I usually would to spin the car back but the engine stalled and that was the end of the first session for me - I lost about 20 minutes. The second session was positive and we found a good set-up for long runs. It was not a bad day at all and I’m satisfied with my first experience of Monaco.”

James Robinson said: “Today was a usual first day in Monaco – it’s all about putting laps in, getting the drivers familiar with the track again, and helping them find a rhythm here. Part of the key to success is getting the rhythm, as once the driver is in the groove the lap time tends to come a little bit more easily. It was a fault-free day technically, which is good. We stayed away from the barriers and all three cars came back in one piece, obviously a plus point. Timo had a spin this morning which cost him a little bit of track time as the engine stalled and he couldn’t continue. At the end of the day it’s good that we are splitting Saubers and Jaguars. We are looking forward to Saturday when there will be more grip out there and we can make more use of the excellent soft Bridgestone tyres.”

All in all, an encouraging day for the team.