06 March: Australian Grand Prix - Race Report - Jordan Grand
Prix
After qualifying 12th and 14th respectively following this morning’s final qualifying session, the first under the
new “aggregate” system, Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Monteiro gave a strong drive in today’s Albert Park race to bring their
Jordan Toyota EJ15s home in 15th and 16th place at the rookies’ first Formula One Grand Prix.
Tiago Monteiro (EJ15/03)
16th “The goal was to finish the race and this is what we managed to achieve. We are not the only team apparently, as all the
cars seemed pretty reliable. As I said during the weekend, we need to finish races and collect as much information as possible.
There are so many things I have learnt today and that is the most important. For the next race, I would like to make some changes to
my seat position and my seat belt. I had a great start but then I lost a lot of time when people were overtaking me so I have to
work on that but otherwise I am very happy to have finished the race.”
Narain Karthikeyan (EJ15/02) 15th “I
had a very bad start and then stayed behind Monteiro for a while. After the first pit stop, I pushed a lot and it was a trouble-free
race. It is very good to finish the first Grand Prix of the season and I am looking forward to the next race, even though the
weather conditions will be much warmer and humid.”
Trevor Carlin, Sporting Director “We are very glad we
finished the year’s first Grand Prix. We got both cars to the finish and that is an achievement, even though it would have been
nice to finish a bit higher up the results table. Now we are looking forward to going to Malaysia and if possible improving the car
a little bit.”
Colin Kolles, Team Principal & Managing Director “Before the Grand Prix our aim was to get
both cars to the end - so I am very happy that they finished the race in the same conditions they started in and that there were no
nasty surprises. ”
